Hewlett-Packard’s newest business laptops come with a cool application that shows your daily calendar within five seconds, even before Windows boots.
All you do is start the computer and then press the F4 key. The screen will show your calendar items for the day in multiple colors. You can also see your laptop’s remaining battery life to see if you need to plug it into a wall socket before you take off. The application is aimed at people who are in the rush in the morning and need to find out within seconds where they have to go.
The software comes on all new HP ProBooks and EliteBook P series laptops for business people. HP is launching a bunch of these new laptops today. The application works alongside other HP QuickWeb and QuickLook software that lets you check out your email or visit a web site before Windows boots.
Among the new models are four new versions of the HP ProBook Standard Series business laptops. These versions range from the HP ProBook 4320 with a 13.3 inch screen for $719 to the HP ProBook 4720 with a 17.3-inch screen that sells for at least $925. The carry Intel Core i3, i5, and i7 processors that debuted in January, and they include options such as Intel HD graphics or ATI Mobility Radeon graphics chips. They have a durable brushed-aluminum finish and come in caviar (dark black) or bordeaux (red wine color).
The Standard series laptops come with business-class security, including a webcam that can recognize your face and log you into your account. The laptops are bundled with Arcsoft Total Media software suite for applications such as DVD playback. Battery life ranges from five hours to 10 hours, depending on whether you have 6-cell or the 9-cell battery. The latter costs extra. The new laptops will be available later in March.
HP is also launching a new generation of its high-end business notebooks, the HP EliteBook laptops. These computers meet durability standards set by the military and come with metal hinges with steel pin axels and a reinforced display latch. The models have spill-resistant keyboards which drain spilled liquid through the bottom of the laptop.
The HP EliteBook 2740p laptop has a touchscreen and can be converted into a tablet by twisting the screen on its swivel and laying it flat over th ekeyboard. It has a 12.1-inch LED display, runs for 5 hours on a six-cell battery, and runs for 11 hours when attached to an optional ultraslim battery. It will be available in April starting at $1,599. An optional $299 docking station provides a DVD drive as well as a variety of connectors such as DisplayPort and hard drive attachments. The docking station is available April 12.
The 3.3-pound HP EliteBook 2540p has fewer bells and whistles and sells for $1,099. Its battery life ranges from four hours on a 3-cell battery to eight hours on a six-cell and 10.5 hours on a 9-cell battery. It will be available in April.
søndag 28. februar 2010
Politi: Marie Osmond sønn begikk selvmord
død Marie Osmond's 18-år gamle sønn har blitt klassifisert som selvmord, sier politiet søndag.
NSFW: Cherchez la berømmelse - eller hvorfor media besettelse med Twitter kampanjer vil gjøre kundeservice lukten fransk
Tid var, visste hvordan bedrifter å holde oversikt over deres viktigste kunder. Først satte de opp lojalitetsprogrammer: datastyrte systemer som spores pengeverdien av alle som handlet i butikker eller fløy på sine fly og spiste på restauranten deres. Når en stor shopper gjort en reservasjon, selskapet ble varslet til deres status og de ble behandlet deretter. Hyppig løpesedler fikk oppgraderinger og champagne, fikk hyppige Diners besøk av kokk ved bordet deres - den slags ting. Alt for å sikre at pengene holdes flytende. Og så var det den andre måte å måle verdt: kjendis. Det var forstått at hvis du var (for betydning) i filmer, eller på TV eller en journalist med et betydelig publikum da du ville fått spesialbehandling også, ofte gratis. Brad Pit trenger ikke å blande seg med plebs i American Airlines lounge, ikke Courtney Cox ikke vente i kø i banken, og The New York Times restaurant kritiker aldri har å vente en måned på et bord på Le Bernardin. Hvis du er en bedrift, alt dette er riktig: høyt betalende kunder er de som holder deg i virksomheten, og kjendiser er de som garantert positive omtaler i pressen. Ingen messes med Oprah. Og flere tiår systemet fungerte.
Wordle I Varemerke Trouble søker Legal Advice
Jeg har mye kjærlighet for Wordle. Jeg har brukt teksten sky generatoren dusinvis av tid til bruk i presentasjoner, TechCrunch innlegg og tilfeldige ting helt siden jeg oppdaget verktøyet. Men som i går, programmet er ikke lenger tilgjengelig, og nettstedet kun viser meldingen kopiert over. I et varsel og et blogginnlegg, sier Wordle utvikleren Jonathan Feinberg har han vært tvunget til å ta tjenesten frakoblet på grunn av et varemerke krav mot hans bruk av ordet "wordle" og uttaler at han leter etter pro bono juridisk rådgivning fra IP-advokater til klare off overtredelsen kravet.
The Pitter-patter of Little Features
Jeg var ute av landet i store deler av 2009, så det var ikke før jeg tilbrakte to måneder tilbake i San Francisco at jeg merket en stor endring i nettsamfunn. Babies. Jeg snakker ikke om whiny Millennials kommer ut av college og krevende risikokapital for deres iPhone app. Jeg snakker om faktiske babyer. De som gjennomgår rundt huset iført bleier. I 2006, co-Jeg skrev en BusinessWeek dekke historien om da burgeoning Web 2.0 bevegelse, og en kjennetegnene på scenen var en følelse av å ha blitt brent av dot com bom og bust. Det var da mange av ledere, investorer og fotsoldater av Web 2.0-bevegelsen hadde flyttet til Silicon Valley, og hadde sin første smak av oppstart liv. Som et resultat mange av dem hadde som Max Levchin av PayPal og Slide eller Evan Williams av Blogger og Twitter, levde et berg av ville livserfaringer når det kom til business-oppkjøp, ousters, kommandant millioner i venture-kapital, men ikke mye i form av tradisjonelle "livserfaringer." Du vet ekteskap, barn og lignende. Til tross for at netto worths i millioner av dollar, gjorde mange av dem ikke engang eier et hus. Mange trodde ikke de hadde tid. Mine, hvordan det har endret seg. Den 30-noe Valley generasjon som flyttet til Valley frisk etter college, stakk ut krasjet og fikk tidlig på Web 2.0-bevegelsen er nå gift og har barn. Massevis av dem.
Stjerner ser strålende på rødt teppe
Actress Anna Kendrick var blant stjernene til å ta på den røde løperen torsdag for den 12. årlige Costume Designers Guild Awards.
LG håndsett kjører Windows Telefon 7 villfanget
Telefoner som kjører Windows Phone 7 vil ikke treffer hyllene før ferien, men her har vi den første av dem gjør en offentlig opptreden. QWERTY-aktivert touchscreen apparat var ...
Nexus One gjør det til Vodafone UK i april
T-Mobile er fremdeles den eneste operatøren der ute til å tilby subsidierte Nexus Ones. Dette er imidlertid kommer til å endre snart. Really snart. Angivelig er Vodafone UK får Googles første helt egne Android-basert enhet i. ..
lørdag 27. februar 2010
Facebook Buzz eksisterer ikke! It's A Stream ... øl.
Siden Facebook startet på et universitetsområde, det er fornuftig at de feirer dunker. Men visste du at de faktisk har en Facebook-program viet til tønne på kontoret sitt? Og de liker å ha det gøy med det. Mens Keg Presence er ikke en offisiell Facebook-app, det var opprettet og vedlikeholdes av Facebook ansatte. Så hva gjør den? Programmet er en jevn strøm av informasjon om hva som skjer med Facebook tønne. For eksempel sender Keg Presence ut meldinger for å la brukere (andre Facebook ansatte) vet hva slags øl er i tønne. Og når keg er tomt, det stolpe bilder av BevMo, der Facebook-ansatte angivelig gå til etterfylle den.
Marie Osmond sønn dør
Marie Osmond's 18-år gamle sønn, Michael Blosil, døde, en familie talsmannen lørdag.
Bill I UK mai Forby offentlige Wi-Fi
Lykke sortere dette ut, kortsiktig lovgivere. En kommende stykke store lovgivningen i Storbritannia, som kalles den digitale økonomien Bill, vil i hovedsak tvinge alle offentlige wi-fi poeng offline ved å kreve urimelig høye nivåer av opphavsrettslig vern av biblioteker og små bedrifter. Lovforslaget, som bærer visse likhetstrekk til den omstridte DMCA her i USA, er tilsynelatende sikte på å gi rettighetshavere til å kontrollere sitt innhold på nettet. Men mens en ISP kan oppdage et brudd med en av sine abonnenter og send en nastygram til passende parti, er det vanskelig å gjøre det når din "abonnent" er en pub eller kafé som tilbyr gratis wi-fi til kundene. Hvis noen kjøper en kopp kaffe, laster ned et par sanger, og så går og aldri kommer tilbake, som er brutt? Ifølge den digitale økonomien Bill, kafeen.
Week in review: Bloom Energy’s power plant in a box, Apple’s sex ban
Here’s our roundup of the week’s business and tech news. First, the most popular stories that VentureBeat published in the last seven days:
Bloom Energy: Is its ‘power plant in a box’ worth all the hype’? — Bloom Energy finally emerged from stealth mode, unveiling its “Bloom Box” fuel cell during a 60 Minutes segment with Lesley Stahl. Capable of powering more than 100 homes while producing close to zero emissions, just one of these boxes could radically alter how people get their energy. We look at whether the product could be the godsend some are claiming.
14 of the stupidest things ever said in sales meetings — Jim Nichols, a senior partner at Catalyst:SF, asked a number of buyers and sellers about the stupidest things they’ve heard in meetings. Most of his list is just hilariously dumb; the last item is a common-but-crucial mistake.
Apple bans 5,000 apps for sexual content. Here are the new rules — Blogger Jon Atherton at iPhone app developer Chillifresh has become the de facto spokesman for those who think Apple’s new anti-smut rules for iPhone apps are too puritanical. Chillifresh’s app was one of those hit by Apple’s cleanup campaign this past week. Atherton claimed Apple had banned 5,000 apps, and quoted restrictions said to be straight from an Apple representative.
YouTube pulls original “Rickroll” video after 30 million views — Writer Devindra Hardawar was outraged when YouTube pulled down the original “Rickroll” music video used in online pranks. Initially, viewers trying to watch the video were told it was removed due to a “terms of use violation,” but YouTube later brought the video back, saying its removal was a mistake.
Google real-time search adds status updates from Facebook pages — Facebook status updates from Pages started showing up in Google’s real-time search results this week. The key thing to remember, however, is that Google has much more limited access to Facebook’s real-time data than its competitor, Bing.
And here are five more stories we thought were important, thought-provoking, or fun:
Is Apple’s new sex ban a ploy to win educators over to the iPad? — Kim-Mai Cutler looked at Apple’s new no-smut rules and had a hard time believing the high priests of the App Store magically woke up one morning and suddenly decided that ‘T-and-A’ apps weren’t okay. The real rationale for the ban, she argues, has more to do with Apple’s desire to mass-market its iPad tablet in the classroom.
Hi5 to announce new online games management team, acquisition of social game firm Big Six — In its ambition to be a player in the red hot category of social network games, Hi5 acquired Big Six, an Austin, Texas-based social game developer that has its own battle-tested virtual currency platform.
Startup Visa Act officially introduced in the Senate – It looks like the startup founder visa, a concept that has a lot of backing from the startup and venture community, might actually become a reality: Senators John Kerry and Richard Lugar (a Democrat and a Republican, respectively) this week introduced the Startup Visa Act, which reflects many of the ideas pushed by the movement’s advocates.
As predicted, Silver Spring preps for IPO — At the start of the year, when everyone was throwing out predictions for the rapidly growing cleantech sector, Tesla Motors and smart grid networking provider Silver Spring Networks were pegged as the companies most likely to go public in 2010. Now, unsurprisingly, Silver Spring has tapped bankers for its own IPO.
Embargoes explained by colorful cartoon characters — We at VentureBeat are totally fine with embargoes, the timestamps PR people put on press releases. Still, the process can suck the fun out of a workday, which is why we (and many other bloggs) were delighted by a Text-to-Movie cartoon that walked through pitfalls of the standard procedure.
Bloom Energy: Is its ‘power plant in a box’ worth all the hype’? — Bloom Energy finally emerged from stealth mode, unveiling its “Bloom Box” fuel cell during a 60 Minutes segment with Lesley Stahl. Capable of powering more than 100 homes while producing close to zero emissions, just one of these boxes could radically alter how people get their energy. We look at whether the product could be the godsend some are claiming.
14 of the stupidest things ever said in sales meetings — Jim Nichols, a senior partner at Catalyst:SF, asked a number of buyers and sellers about the stupidest things they’ve heard in meetings. Most of his list is just hilariously dumb; the last item is a common-but-crucial mistake.
Apple bans 5,000 apps for sexual content. Here are the new rules — Blogger Jon Atherton at iPhone app developer Chillifresh has become the de facto spokesman for those who think Apple’s new anti-smut rules for iPhone apps are too puritanical. Chillifresh’s app was one of those hit by Apple’s cleanup campaign this past week. Atherton claimed Apple had banned 5,000 apps, and quoted restrictions said to be straight from an Apple representative.
YouTube pulls original “Rickroll” video after 30 million views — Writer Devindra Hardawar was outraged when YouTube pulled down the original “Rickroll” music video used in online pranks. Initially, viewers trying to watch the video were told it was removed due to a “terms of use violation,” but YouTube later brought the video back, saying its removal was a mistake.
Google real-time search adds status updates from Facebook pages — Facebook status updates from Pages started showing up in Google’s real-time search results this week. The key thing to remember, however, is that Google has much more limited access to Facebook’s real-time data than its competitor, Bing.
And here are five more stories we thought were important, thought-provoking, or fun:
Is Apple’s new sex ban a ploy to win educators over to the iPad? — Kim-Mai Cutler looked at Apple’s new no-smut rules and had a hard time believing the high priests of the App Store magically woke up one morning and suddenly decided that ‘T-and-A’ apps weren’t okay. The real rationale for the ban, she argues, has more to do with Apple’s desire to mass-market its iPad tablet in the classroom.
Hi5 to announce new online games management team, acquisition of social game firm Big Six — In its ambition to be a player in the red hot category of social network games, Hi5 acquired Big Six, an Austin, Texas-based social game developer that has its own battle-tested virtual currency platform.
Startup Visa Act officially introduced in the Senate – It looks like the startup founder visa, a concept that has a lot of backing from the startup and venture community, might actually become a reality: Senators John Kerry and Richard Lugar (a Democrat and a Republican, respectively) this week introduced the Startup Visa Act, which reflects many of the ideas pushed by the movement’s advocates.
As predicted, Silver Spring preps for IPO — At the start of the year, when everyone was throwing out predictions for the rapidly growing cleantech sector, Tesla Motors and smart grid networking provider Silver Spring Networks were pegged as the companies most likely to go public in 2010. Now, unsurprisingly, Silver Spring has tapped bankers for its own IPO.
Embargoes explained by colorful cartoon characters — We at VentureBeat are totally fine with embargoes, the timestamps PR people put on press releases. Still, the process can suck the fun out of a workday, which is why we (and many other bloggs) were delighted by a Text-to-Movie cartoon that walked through pitfalls of the standard procedure.
Nexus Ett treffer Verizon den 23 mars?
Det siste vi hørte den Nexus ene var å navigere seg gjennom FCC og Verizon var målretting "Våren 2010" lanseringen. Men nå er det et rykte flyter rundt som sier helt klart at den 23 mars 2010 blir lanseringsdato. Interessant ...
EC Roundup: Negotiators, boards of directors and some really dumb sales people
Here’s the latest from VentureBeat’s Entrepreneur Corner:
Ask the attorney: Should I hire a pro negotiator now that I have a buyout offer? — It’s exciting to get a buyout offer for your company, but is it worth taking the additional step to hire a professional negotiator? Attorney Scott Edward Williams looks at the pros and cons.
5 ways to make your startup attractive to VCs — Even during the good times, it’s not easy to convince a venture capitalist to fund your startup. And these are hardly good times. Richard Brekka, president of Dolphin Equity Partners, notes five ways to make your company stand out among the competition.
Get a board of directors – even if you’re not funded — Boards of directors tend to be something a startup doesn’t give much thought to until they’re in the midst of fund raising. But serial entrepreneur Will Herman notes that having a board even in the early days can be a source of invaluable advice.
14 of the stupidest things ever said in sales meetings — Jim Nichols, CEO of Catalyst:SF, has heard some dumb things in sales meetings. After talking with some of his associates, he came up with this list of the worst — including one from a sales person who quit their job mid-pitch.
Entrepreneurs have no rules — Accuray’s John Adler says he knew his son would be a successful entrepreneur from day one, because Trip (who founded Scribd) always made up his own rules. The two discuss the importance of an independent attitude and the advice John gave Trip in this Stanford University lecture.
Tags: entrepreneur corner
Ask the attorney: Should I hire a pro negotiator now that I have a buyout offer? — It’s exciting to get a buyout offer for your company, but is it worth taking the additional step to hire a professional negotiator? Attorney Scott Edward Williams looks at the pros and cons.
5 ways to make your startup attractive to VCs — Even during the good times, it’s not easy to convince a venture capitalist to fund your startup. And these are hardly good times. Richard Brekka, president of Dolphin Equity Partners, notes five ways to make your company stand out among the competition.
Get a board of directors – even if you’re not funded — Boards of directors tend to be something a startup doesn’t give much thought to until they’re in the midst of fund raising. But serial entrepreneur Will Herman notes that having a board even in the early days can be a source of invaluable advice.
14 of the stupidest things ever said in sales meetings — Jim Nichols, CEO of Catalyst:SF, has heard some dumb things in sales meetings. After talking with some of his associates, he came up with this list of the worst — including one from a sales person who quit their job mid-pitch.
Entrepreneurs have no rules — Accuray’s John Adler says he knew his son would be a successful entrepreneur from day one, because Trip (who founded Scribd) always made up his own rules. The two discuss the importance of an independent attitude and the advice John gave Trip in this Stanford University lecture.
Tags: entrepreneur corner
Entreprenører kan gjøres?
Silicon Valley investorer ofte har et bilde i hodet av den typen person som er verdig til finansiering: unge, issørpe, sta og arrogant. De tror at vellykkede gründere kommer fra gründer-familier, og at de starter sin gründer reisen ved å selge brus mens det i grunnskolen. Angel investor og gründer, sier Jason Calacanis så mye i sin siste tale til Penn State studenter. Og etter møtet Wharton studenter uttrykte VC Fred Wilson sjokk når en professor fortalte ham at du kan lære folk å bli gründere. Wilson skrev: "Jeg har jobbet med gründere i nesten 25 år nå og det er inngrodd i bakhodet mitt at noen enten er født en gründer eller ikke. "Jason, Fred, og Silicon Valley ventureselskaper, jeg har nyheter til deg: du har det helt feil. Entreprenører er ikke født, de er laget. Og de er ikke noe som du tror de er.
PayPal Gjenopprette Bank Uttak Service i India 3 mars
Om tre uker siden, eBay elektroniske betalinger datter PayPal plutselig begynte å blokkere personlige betalinger går inn eller kommer ut av regnskapet fra indiske kunder, noe som resulterte i en flom av online klager fra det sistnevnte som varierte fra beskyldningene om rasisme til ren amateurism. Forrige uke rykter som PayPal faktisk ble tvunget til å stanse personlig utbetalinger av Reserve Bank of India (RBI) fordi de ikke oppfyller alle relevante krav i regelverket, ble bekreftet. I går kveld, postet PayPal en status oppdatering på konsernets blogg, og sa at de forventer å gjenoppta en del av sin tjeneste, nemlig bankuttak evner, som på onsdag 3 mars.
Steady, Efficient nedgang på Yahoo
Effektivitet er en handelshøyskole idé som antyder et selskap kjører glatt. Det er helt fantastisk når du snakker om et kull gruvedrift eller Supercuts. Men når det kommer til et selskap som Yahoo er det ikke positivt. Internett er fremdeles i sin vill vest dager, og "klar, brann Målet" game plan Facebook og de andre unge kanoner spiser sin lunsj. Selv den massive Google er fremdeles prøver å riste ting opp med nye og kontroversielle produkter. Yahoo strategi virker mer som "klar, mål, mål, mål, mål ..." Yesterday Jordan Rohan hos Thomas Weisel Partners beskrevet Yahoo i sin første analytiker rapport på bedriften. Han mener dette er riktig ledelsen å få mer effektivitet til Yahoo. Men han tilbringer det meste av sin tid snakker om negativer, og det er ingen spenning rundt nye produkter eller ideer: For posten, skjer vi tror den nåværende ledelsen er den rette på dette stadiet i Yahoo! S bedriftens utvikling. Teamet er å bringe effektiviteten til et massivt ineffektive selskap. Yahoo! er tynget i dag av dusinvis av kodebasen, tusenvis av inntektene produserer egenskaper, minst tre salgsteam fraksjoner (display, søk, annonsenettverk), og noen få tusen "ekstra" ansatte som trengs for å kjøre medieselskapet i dag på grunn av sin kompliserte arven eiendeler og langt oppkjøp flung.
fredag 26. februar 2010
webOS 1.4 update nå tilgjengelig for Palm Pre og Pixi på Sprint
Gode nyheter, Palm fans! Hvis du har tatt en pause fra jamming på "Oppdater"-knappen, er det på tide å gå trykker du på den en siste gang: utbyggingen av webOS 1.4 har nettopp begynt. Fangsten: det virker som det er bare for Sprint telefoner akkurat nå, med Verizon Pre Plus og Pixi Plus fortsatt rapporterer at 1.3 er den nyeste utgaven. Vi visste det kom i februar takket være Palm's kunngjøring på CES - og takket være rumor mill, var vi alle lede til tro det kom et par uker siden. Alle falske starter og falske forhåpninger til side, det er tilgjengelig nå. Vi ser rapporter (takket Twitter!) At det bare har gått live på Sprint håndsett.
webOS 1.4 er nå tilgjengelig for Palm Pre og Pixi på Sprint, O2, Movistar
Gode nyheter, Palm fans! Hvis du har tatt en pause fra jamming på "Oppdater"-knappen, er det på tide å gå trykker du på den en siste gang: utbyggingen av webOS 1.4 har nettopp begynt. Fangsten: det virker som det er bare for Sprint telefoner akkurat nå (Oppdatering: I USA er det - det er også tilgjengelig på [...]
Go for a virtual run in Yosemite, hear your own footsteps
Have you ever thought how cool it would be if your treadmill could take you on a virtual jog through nature so you could watch something more scenic than the gym wall while you run? Well, your day is coming.
Virtual Active, which lets you access a library of running, hiking, and biking workouts filmed live in beautiful outdoor locations, is releasing a free half hour sample of its virtual exercise experience for download on iTunes on March 1.
Virtual Active is also working with cardio equipment manufacturer Johnson Health Tech, the #4 manufacturer of cardio equipment, and The Indoorcycling Group, a leading European indoor cycling company, to produce Matrix Cardio equipment. Matrix Cardio equipment will automatically adjust the treadmill incline to mimic the terrain in the video, adjust the speed of video playback based on the user’s running speed, and provide on-location nature audio (in the case of cardio-enabled downloads, the video would not be able to provide such interactivity). In addition, these manufacturers plan to introduce SyncStep, which will allow users to hear the sounds of their steps over the terrain as they run or walk. For example, when running on a wooded trail, the user might hear crunching leaves underfoot each time their foot hits the tread.
The company has perfected filming while running at 12-14 mph paces for smooth video playback, all shot in HD. Virtual Active will also be introducing its commercial equipment to health clubs on March 10 at the International Racquet and Sports Club Association (IHRSA) fitness trade show in San Diego.
Videos of the location-based workouts, which include Yellowstone, Yosemite, Niagara Falls, Mount Rushmore, and the Grand Tetons, will be sold on DVD for $19.95, as downloads for $9.95, on Blu-ray disc or as part of specially-equipped cardio equipment packages.
The company will also be launching an online store May 1, where users can downloads instructional videos by fitness professionals as well as upbeat workout tunes from music provider Rumblefish, which can be played on any iPod-compatible fitness equipment or can be burned to DVD and watched at home.
The company’s business model is a mix of software sales and manufacturing partnerships on which it is paid per unit of cardio equipment sold as well as the majority of the revenue from additional content downloads. It also has a Passport Player, a standalone web-connected media player that health clubs can install to conduct classes and would be based on a monthly subscription. It is also exploring brand associations and partnerships, in which a billboard along a running route or the instructor’s fitness gear would be provided by a sponsor. I was able to view some mockups, and these opportunities are not at all intrusive to the user’s fitness experience but offer brands prominent product placement throughout the video.
Johnson Health Tech and The Indoorcycling Group also have a partnership with Livestrong that will include Virtual Active’s content for Livestrong-branded equipment.
Virtual Active was founded by John Ford, who is a runner and has also played competitive soccer, after he left his job in corporate accounting at Clorox, in 2006. The company is based in San Francisco and has 10 full-time employees. The privately held company has received $2.5 million in funding from friends and family to date. Most competitors, such as Trixter and Expresso, focus on cycling, whereas Virtual Active is focusing on the full range of cardio equipment, including mountain biking, running and hiking for treadmills and ellipticals, and steep hiking on step machines, said Ford. “By Fitting entertainment to a person’s favorite exercise and not making them change modalities,” Ford believes the market for Virtual Active is quadrupled.
While all the locations filmed are in the US, The company will be filming locations in Germany and Italy in April and Australia and New Zealand later this year. It hopes to film locations all over the world, said Ford. Ford said his goals for the company include acquiring some powerful brand partnerships, expanding the content library to cover the globe, and increasing Virtual Active’s distribution to every place screens exist in the fitness world.
Companies: Virtual Active
Virtual Active, which lets you access a library of running, hiking, and biking workouts filmed live in beautiful outdoor locations, is releasing a free half hour sample of its virtual exercise experience for download on iTunes on March 1.
Virtual Active is also working with cardio equipment manufacturer Johnson Health Tech, the #4 manufacturer of cardio equipment, and The Indoorcycling Group, a leading European indoor cycling company, to produce Matrix Cardio equipment. Matrix Cardio equipment will automatically adjust the treadmill incline to mimic the terrain in the video, adjust the speed of video playback based on the user’s running speed, and provide on-location nature audio (in the case of cardio-enabled downloads, the video would not be able to provide such interactivity). In addition, these manufacturers plan to introduce SyncStep, which will allow users to hear the sounds of their steps over the terrain as they run or walk. For example, when running on a wooded trail, the user might hear crunching leaves underfoot each time their foot hits the tread.
The company has perfected filming while running at 12-14 mph paces for smooth video playback, all shot in HD. Virtual Active will also be introducing its commercial equipment to health clubs on March 10 at the International Racquet and Sports Club Association (IHRSA) fitness trade show in San Diego.
Videos of the location-based workouts, which include Yellowstone, Yosemite, Niagara Falls, Mount Rushmore, and the Grand Tetons, will be sold on DVD for $19.95, as downloads for $9.95, on Blu-ray disc or as part of specially-equipped cardio equipment packages.
The company will also be launching an online store May 1, where users can downloads instructional videos by fitness professionals as well as upbeat workout tunes from music provider Rumblefish, which can be played on any iPod-compatible fitness equipment or can be burned to DVD and watched at home.
The company’s business model is a mix of software sales and manufacturing partnerships on which it is paid per unit of cardio equipment sold as well as the majority of the revenue from additional content downloads. It also has a Passport Player, a standalone web-connected media player that health clubs can install to conduct classes and would be based on a monthly subscription. It is also exploring brand associations and partnerships, in which a billboard along a running route or the instructor’s fitness gear would be provided by a sponsor. I was able to view some mockups, and these opportunities are not at all intrusive to the user’s fitness experience but offer brands prominent product placement throughout the video.
Johnson Health Tech and The Indoorcycling Group also have a partnership with Livestrong that will include Virtual Active’s content for Livestrong-branded equipment.
Virtual Active was founded by John Ford, who is a runner and has also played competitive soccer, after he left his job in corporate accounting at Clorox, in 2006. The company is based in San Francisco and has 10 full-time employees. The privately held company has received $2.5 million in funding from friends and family to date. Most competitors, such as Trixter and Expresso, focus on cycling, whereas Virtual Active is focusing on the full range of cardio equipment, including mountain biking, running and hiking for treadmills and ellipticals, and steep hiking on step machines, said Ford. “By Fitting entertainment to a person’s favorite exercise and not making them change modalities,” Ford believes the market for Virtual Active is quadrupled.
While all the locations filmed are in the US, The company will be filming locations in Germany and Italy in April and Australia and New Zealand later this year. It hopes to film locations all over the world, said Ford. Ford said his goals for the company include acquiring some powerful brand partnerships, expanding the content library to cover the globe, and increasing Virtual Active’s distribution to every place screens exist in the fitness world.
Companies: Virtual Active
IPhone's Peephole
Daring Fireball's John Gruber skrev hva jeg trodde var et godt svar til mitt innlegg om Apples App Store sexy app politikk. Mens jeg bemerket at en av grunnene til Apples politikk var dumt var at hver iPhone inneholder to programmer, iTunes og Safari (begge laget av Apple), som gir brukere tilgang til innhold mye verre enn den type ting nå utestengt fra App Store , kommer han tilbake å si at kanskje tanken er ikke å fjerne dette innholdet fra iPhone selv, men bare fra den faktiske App Store. Min første reaksjon på dette var humoristisk trodde at både iTunes og Safari ville bli utestengt fra App Store hadde de ikke blitt inkludert som standard på alle iPhone. Men det faktisk føre til et mer interessant å tenke på at noen andre innlegg rundt på nettet sikkerhetskopiere dag: Safari er den iPhone luken.
Qype, The Yelp Of Europe, Gets A Look From Google & Nokia
Hamburg, Germany based Qype, a Yelp-like site that's focused on European markets, has recently had long acquisition looks from both Google and Nokia, we've heard from multiple sources. A deal with Nokia in particular was looking extremely likely until recently.
The site was first launched in 2005 and today attracts 9 million monthly worldwide visitors, according to Comscore, just a little less than Yelp's 11 million. Both likely have far more actual visitors, but Comscore is good for comparision - in December, for example, Qype told us they had 17.7 million unique visitors. A year ago the company brought in a new CEO and have been expanding rapidly across Europe.
Google supposedly took a look at the company and passed, opting instead to just import Qype's content. Nokia made a run for the company after Google, with one source saying that a term sheet had been signed in the $50 million range.
The site was first launched in 2005 and today attracts 9 million monthly worldwide visitors, according to Comscore, just a little less than Yelp's 11 million. Both likely have far more actual visitors, but Comscore is good for comparision - in December, for example, Qype told us they had 17.7 million unique visitors. A year ago the company brought in a new CEO and have been expanding rapidly across Europe.
Google supposedly took a look at the company and passed, opting instead to just import Qype's content. Nokia made a run for the company after Google, with one source saying that a term sheet had been signed in the $50 million range.
Konkurranse! Mad Lib din favoritt nettstedets melde seg side om berømmelse, sjampo og andre premier
I går, Luke Wroblewski - Chief design architect hos Yahoo! - Skrev et blogginnlegg synge lovsanger om audiosharing nettstedet Huffduffer. Men det var ikke Huffduffer tjeneste som fikk Luke W animert, så mye som sin registreringsside. Mens de fleste nettsteder bruke et standard skjema med tekst-bokser og alternativknappene for nye registreringer, presenterer Huffduffer sine spørsmål som "Mad lib 'stiluttrykk ... "Jeg ønsker å bruke Huffduffer. Jeg vil brukernavnet være _____________ og jeg vil at passordet skal _____________. Min e-postadressen er _________. Forresten, mitt navn er ______________ og mitt nettsted er ___________ . "... som er ganske ryddig.
Brightkite: 2 millioner brukere og mye lokal Promo Interesse
Igår skrev jeg at stedet skulle bli årets Twitter på SXSW. I dag eksploderte innboksen min. Det later til at omtrent alle selskap, annonsør, og med massevis av brukere knyttet til plasseringen plass mailet meg med plasser, ideer, tanker, osv. For å si at plassen er rødglødende akkurat nå, er å sette det mildt. Ett av selskapene som nådde ut til meg var Brightkite, en av de tidligste varmt sted spillere. CMO og gründer Rob Lawson innrømmer at nettverket har vært "ganske stille en stund, men antyder noen spennende ting som kommer opp for mars (ja, i tiden rundt SXSW). Men han ønsket også å dele noen ting de jobber med akkurat nå, og noen interessante biter av data.
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Avvist av Apple, Grooveshark Releases App For jailbroken iPhones på Cydia
Når Jason Kincaid prøvd ut på iPhone app online musikkstreaming oppstart Grooveshark bygget og viste ut i juli 2009, skrev han at det var stor, men at han ikke forventer det å dukke opp i App Store som helst snart. Han var rett på begge punkter. Grooveshark nå sier at det har gitt opp sine ambisjoner om å få godkjent for den offisielle App Store, hevder at Apple har vært "rituelt avvise" programmet for "primær egoistiske grunner". Vi har hørt den sangen før.
Microsoft forteller Google til å møte Antitrust Musikk
Tidligere denne uken slo nyheten om at EU var åpne en antitrust etterforskning av Google - og Microsofts fingeravtrykk var alle over det. En av de tre selskapene innlevering klager om Google er eid av Microsoft, mens en annen er medlem av en gruppe som er delvis finansiert av dem. Google straks svarte på henvendelsen med et blogginnlegg kalt "Committed to konkurrerende ganske" som ga en kort oversikt over hvordan dens søk rangeringer arbeid. Dag har Microsoft skrevet et blogginnlegg som innrømmer at det spilte en rolle i instigating henvendelsen, sier at "klager i konkurranserett tilfeller vanligvis kommer fra konkurrenter. Og det er også anklaget Google om "å fortelle journalister at antitrust bekymring for søket er ikke ekte, fordi noen av klagene kommer fra en av sine siste gjenværende søk konkurrenter."
Grooveshark app nå tilgjengelig for iPhone ... hvis det er en jailbroken one
Når Jason Kincaid prøvd ut på iPhone app online musikkstreaming oppstart Grooveshark bygget og viste ut i juli 2009, skrev han at det var stor, men at han ikke forventer det å dukke opp i App Store som helst snart. Han var rett på begge punkter. Grooveshark nå sier at det har gitt opp sine ambisjoner om å få godkjent for den offisielle App Store, hevder at Apple har vært "rituelt avvise" programmet for "primær egoistiske grunner". Vi har hørt den sangen før.
Gary Coleman sykehuset etter det andre beslaget
Gary Coleman blir behandlet på et Los Angeles-området sykehus etter å ha fått et anfall på settet til TV-serien "The Insider" på fredag, det viser rapporter.
"Bachelor" Jason Mesnick å gifte
"Bachelor" star Jason Mesnick og tidligere deltager Molly Malaney er satt til å knytte knute lørdag, har folk lært.
Skater reagerer på spottet announcers
Johnny Weir er sparket oppover kommentarer av et par kanadiske kringkastere som foreslo sine kostymer og "kroppsspråk" setter et dårlig eksempel for mannlige skatere og spøkte han kanskje må ta et kjønn test.
Hvem er Reese Witherspoon nye kjæreste?
De siste årene talent agent Jim Toth var kjent som en stigende stjerne på Creative Artists Agency, hvor han arbeider med slike stjerner som Robert Downey Jr og Tobey Maguire. Og hans venner kjenner ham som en morsom, down-to-earth fyr.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Vennligst se bort fra denne E-post
Første PRMac, og nå NBC Universal. Jeg tror jeg bare tenkt å gi opp nå. Det er ingen shaming denne industrien i normal menneskelig atferd. Jeg mener, som faktisk synes det er greit å sende en hel database med en test melding? Minst takket de meg på slutten. Fra: PressRelease@nbcuni.com Dato: 26 februar 2010 11:38:47 PST Til: [alle på Techcrunch, to ganger] Emne: Vennligst se bort fra denne e FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Kontakt: Pressemelding 818-840-7705 Pressrelease @ nbcuni . com Vennligst se bort fra denne e-post Se bort fra denne e-posten som vi utfører en test av e-postsystemer. Thank You
Seesmic's BlackBerry App Nå er søtere enn alle de andre
Når Seesmic debuterte sine Twitter klienter for Android og BlackBerry-enheter tilbake i november skrev vi at de to programmene var sannsynligvis den sterkeste tilbud der ute for hver mobiltelefon. Seesmic nettopp oppdatert sin Android app, bringe den nærmere til Twitter apps for iPhone. I dag er Seesmic rulle ut en kraftig ny versjon av sin BlackBerry ca. Den nye versjonen inkluderer støtte for flere kontoer, Ping.fm integrering (Seesmic ervervet Ping.fm tidligere i år) og muligheten til å velge dine foto sender størrelse. Så hvis du har mer enn én Twitter-konto, kan du stille Seesmic å huske alle kontoene dine, og enkelt bytte mellom dem. Du kan også kryss-post-meldinger mellom ulike kontoer samtidig. Programmet lar deg sette opp standard konto som blir generert hver gang du åpner Seesmic for BlackBerry. Du kan legge til opptil ti kontoer med den nye funksjonen.
Social Graph i minnet, Twitter Starts spørre brukerne fylle ut deres Profiler
Når det gjelder bruker oppdagelse, den beste måten for tjenester å gjøre det er å bruke din profil informasjon. Grunnleggende ting som ditt navn, sted, bio og e-post er alle nyttige måter for andre å finne deg. Problemet er at mange brukere ikke bryr seg om å fylle ut dette når de registrerer seg for en tjeneste. Så Twitter er nå ber eksisterende brukere å gjøre det. En ny overlegg har startet spratt opp på tjenesten kalt "bli funnet på Twitter." Dette tilfeldig vises (den gjorde for meg et par minutter siden) når du laster opp twitter.com. Den lyder: "Vi håpet du kunne hjelpe oss å gjøre det lettere for folk å finne sine venner og kolleger på Twitter. Gjennomgang innstillingene nedenfor for å sikre at folk du bryr deg om lett kan finne deg." Det spør deretter om ditt navn, bio, location, e-post og telefonnummer. Hvis du allerede har fylt disse ut, inneholder det hva du tidligere har lagt ned.
Badges Like Us: firkantet Gets Its Rap Song
Det er en ganske god indikator på at en tjeneste er under utvikling fra tidlig adoptert base til ordinære: hvis det er en rap sang om tjenesten. Det har skjedd mange ganger med Twitter som det utviklet seg. Og nå firkantet har sin egen rap også. Badges Like Us "finner Mr. Silva (@ borismsilver) og" Newby (@ thenewb) rapping om å sjekke inn hele byer og tjene emblemer. Det har også den lyriske, "Jeg håper dette treff TechCrunch eller annet jeg blir trist, så selvfølgelig måtte vi forplikte. Andre valg lyrics inkluderer:
Verizon å lansere 4G i opp til 60 markeder innen midten av 2012
Alt beveger seg med lynets hastighet i den mobile verden - alt som er, bortsett fra nettverket rollouts. Hvor som telefoner kan gå fra annonsert til gamle nyheter i blinking av øye, nettverk oppgraderinger .. kan ikke. Take Verizon's oppgraderer til 4G-teknologi, for eksempel: De annonserte flytte til LTE i februar 2009, og begynte testing i et lite marked nesten et halvt år senere. De vil være å skyte den opp for kommersiell bruk for første gang senere i år, med planer om å lansere i 30 markeder før året er ute. Heldigvis ting synes å være påskynde. Verizon har nettopp avslørt planer om å doble sine LTE fotavtrykk, bare litt over 1 år etter lanseringen.
Polaris 'Ryan skjeen og Hollrr David Hegarty på incubating oppstarter i Dogpatch Labs (video)
Jeg har nylig hatt en sjanse til å stoppe ved Dogpatch Labs, San Francisco inkubator mellomrom kjøres av Polaris Venture Partners. The venture selskapet nylig eksportert sine selverklært "frathouse for geeks" konseptet til Cambridge, Massachusetts og New York, men San Francisco er der ideen startet i 2008. I utgangspunktet er Dogpatch et kjølig rom (San Francisco-plasseringen er på Pier 38) der gründere kan leie plass på skrivebordet med en haug av andre oppstart folkens. Det er lunsjene, taler og andre felles arrangementer. Og selv om den er eid av Polaris, trenger du ikke å være eller å bli en Polaris porteføljeselskap å komme i. Jeg intervjuet Polaris 'Ryan skjeen om livet på Dogpatch Labs. For en entreprenør perspektiv introduserte han meg til David Hegarty, konsernsjef i rettferdig-lanserte produktet anbefaling nettstedet Hollrr, kjent som «firkantet for produkter". (Sorry for den ustø kameraet. Jeg kjøper et stativ, før jeg en annen video, jeg sverger.) Bedrifter: Hollrr, Polaris Venture Partners Personer: David Hegarty, Ryan Spoon
OS X share up 29% in past year, slowly chipping away at Microsoft
Web measurement company Quantcast recently began publishing stats on operating system browser share from its sample of quantified publishers. Data shows that in January 2010, Microsoft Windows accounted for 86.8% share of North American web consumption, Apple OS X accounted for 10.9%, and mobile browsers accounted for 1.3%.
Apple’s relative share has grown by 29.4% in the past year, while Windows lost 3.8%. Mobile increased the most in the past year, more than doubling its share of web consumption.
Further Quantcast data measured from the mobile web traffic of quantified sites, show that the Apple iPhone/iPod Touch accounted for more than 60% of mobile web consumption in January 2010 in North America. Apple’s share has been holding steady over the past year, but Motorola (likely due to the Droid) began to make a dent in the past few months.
The global data represents a less rosy picture for Apple — Microsoft Windows accounted for 93% or more of web consumption in every region except Oceania, which includes Australia.
Quantcast’s co-founder and CEO Konrad Feldman said the data represents “virtually everyone” in North America. In fact, it represents everyone who visits one of the many sites that allow Quantcast to measure its traffic. While the list includes many leading ad-supported sites, it leaves out the largest sites on the internet, including Google, Yahoo, Facebook, and Wikipedia. On a global basis, Quantcast claims it reaches a billion people, which means the global data is most likely far more representative than any other measurement firm. Operating system usage share figures can vary greatly depending on the source, and Quantcast’s data is a welcome addition to the collection of data on this metric. The firm also goes into more depth on Windows versions and Apple OS versions.
Apple’s relative share has grown by 29.4% in the past year, while Windows lost 3.8%. Mobile increased the most in the past year, more than doubling its share of web consumption.
Further Quantcast data measured from the mobile web traffic of quantified sites, show that the Apple iPhone/iPod Touch accounted for more than 60% of mobile web consumption in January 2010 in North America. Apple’s share has been holding steady over the past year, but Motorola (likely due to the Droid) began to make a dent in the past few months.
The global data represents a less rosy picture for Apple — Microsoft Windows accounted for 93% or more of web consumption in every region except Oceania, which includes Australia.
Quantcast’s co-founder and CEO Konrad Feldman said the data represents “virtually everyone” in North America. In fact, it represents everyone who visits one of the many sites that allow Quantcast to measure its traffic. While the list includes many leading ad-supported sites, it leaves out the largest sites on the internet, including Google, Yahoo, Facebook, and Wikipedia. On a global basis, Quantcast claims it reaches a billion people, which means the global data is most likely far more representative than any other measurement firm. Operating system usage share figures can vary greatly depending on the source, and Quantcast’s data is a welcome addition to the collection of data on this metric. The firm also goes into more depth on Windows versions and Apple OS versions.
Game media maven Jessica Chobot: Vi elsket henne inntil hun sa at hun ikke spille Farmville (video)
Jessica Chobot er en kjendis på IGN.com, etter å ha blitt en sensasjon over natten i 2005 da et bilde viste henne slikke en Sony PlayStation Portable. Nå er hun vert en video show og blogging om hvem hun liker å ha sex med i Mass Effect 2 og Dragon Age Origins videospill (ja, i spill, er skjøtet doable). I spill, går hun av Baronesse. Som gamer, hun er så hardcore som de kommer. Vi traff henne på Dice toppmøtets Interactive Achievement Awards forrige uke. Men vi var knust da vi fikk vite at hun ikke spiller Farmville. Åpenbart sosiale spill har ennå ikke mottatt. Ja, ja, kanskje Farmville har vunnet prisen for sosiale spill av året. Akk, er den elektroniske verden grusom. Jeg beklager, men du folk på Zynga er nødt til å prøve litt hardere å vinne over Jessica hjerte. Sjekk ut vårt videointervju med Chobot.
Plastiki away! Boat made of recycled bottles ready to launch
Notable eco-warrior and banking heir David de Rothschild today unveiled his newest project: A 60-foot catamaran buoyed entirely by 12,000 recycled plastic bottles. Aptly called the Plastiki, the craft will be making a four-month journey across the Pacific Ocean to call attention to the problem of plastic waste and how it can be reduced in new, innovative ways.
Rothschild, founder of environmental group Adventure Ecology, and his team worked for three years to make the Plastiki a reality. Attracting considerable corporate interest, they have collected a number of contributions from the likes of Hewlett-Packard, which gave several laptops, and Inmarsat, which donated satellite communications equipment.
As such, the sailboat is outfitted with other cutting edge green technologies, including eight 100-watt photovoltaic panels, several thin-film solar panels, small wind turbines, and a few electricity-generating recumbent bikes to power electronics on deck, including computers. In the lower-tech category, there is a vertical (space-saving) hydroponic garden for growing food on board, as well as a toilet that produces compost and a rainwater collection system.
While actual empty soda bottles are stacked densely in the Plastiki’s two hulls to keep it afloat, they are encased in a non-recycled plastic casing. Apparently recycled plastic would not be strong enough to make the ambitious journey, though it was important to Rothschild that it be recyclable in the long run. Aside from that, most of the other materials were previously used, including the aluminum mast, which was formerly an irrigation pipe.
The project was inspired by the Kon-Tiki, a boat that famed explorer Thor Hyderdahl built entirely out of wood, reeds and bamboo and sailed across the Pacific in the 1940s.
Besides the green nature of the boat itself, the other core part of the Plastiki initiative is to use technology — particularly social media — to make recycling and waste pollution a sexier issue. All of the boat’s crew members will be tweeting their experiences throughout the trip. There will also be several web cameras installed on the deck to record activity and allow for video blogs to be posted on Facebook and the project’s web site.
[Image via The San Jose Mercury News]
People: David de Rothschild
Rothschild, founder of environmental group Adventure Ecology, and his team worked for three years to make the Plastiki a reality. Attracting considerable corporate interest, they have collected a number of contributions from the likes of Hewlett-Packard, which gave several laptops, and Inmarsat, which donated satellite communications equipment.
As such, the sailboat is outfitted with other cutting edge green technologies, including eight 100-watt photovoltaic panels, several thin-film solar panels, small wind turbines, and a few electricity-generating recumbent bikes to power electronics on deck, including computers. In the lower-tech category, there is a vertical (space-saving) hydroponic garden for growing food on board, as well as a toilet that produces compost and a rainwater collection system.
While actual empty soda bottles are stacked densely in the Plastiki’s two hulls to keep it afloat, they are encased in a non-recycled plastic casing. Apparently recycled plastic would not be strong enough to make the ambitious journey, though it was important to Rothschild that it be recyclable in the long run. Aside from that, most of the other materials were previously used, including the aluminum mast, which was formerly an irrigation pipe.
The project was inspired by the Kon-Tiki, a boat that famed explorer Thor Hyderdahl built entirely out of wood, reeds and bamboo and sailed across the Pacific in the 1940s.
Besides the green nature of the boat itself, the other core part of the Plastiki initiative is to use technology — particularly social media — to make recycling and waste pollution a sexier issue. All of the boat’s crew members will be tweeting their experiences throughout the trip. There will also be several web cameras installed on the deck to record activity and allow for video blogs to be posted on Facebook and the project’s web site.
[Image via The San Jose Mercury News]
People: David de Rothschild
Grunnlegger Instituttets San Diego Outpost Nyutdannede 12 oppstartinger
Så mange Ressi's grunnlegger Institute i San Diego utpost har uteksaminert 12 oppstarter i innvielses-programmet. Kunngjort i mars 2009, tilbyr grunnlegger Institute gründere og veldig tidlig stadium oppstarter et miljø som er utformet for å fremme vekst og utdanning. Programmet, som nå er aktiv i ni byer over hele verden, har to fire måneder lange økter i året på hvert sted, som inkluderer mentorer økter fra erfarne tech gründere. Programmet har også en unik struktur som tildeler noen egenkapital til hver av gründerne involvert, slik at de har et insentiv til å arbeide sammen. The Fall 2009 i San Diego semesteret nettopp har uteksaminert 12 oppstarter. Mentorer for semesteret inkluderte Trip Adler, CEO, Scribd; Philip Kaplan, medstifter, Blippy og Peter Pham, CEO, BillShrink. Den nye oppstarter inkluderer:
UK politicians are latest victims of Twitter phishing attack
A wave of Twitter phishing attacks have hit many users over the past couple of days. While there has been a consistent stream of these attacks throughout the course of Twitter’s history, two have managed to spread aggressively and seem to be infiltrating some well established political and media circles in the United Kingdom.
The latest victims according to The Gaurdian are several well known individuals and groups, including the UK’s Press Complaints Commission, BBC’s own Nick Higham, The Guardian’s Matt Wells and Environmental Minister Ed Miliband. Even First Direct, a popular bank, fell victim to the scheme. A seemingly nerve racking thought considering the amount of personal information available. Though it appears the company did assure customers that no personal data was compromised.
Twitter phishing attacks usually appear as tweets or direct messages asking to click a URL and enter credentials which then hacks their accounts and continues the spread to their followers. The two notable phishing attacks have come in the form of “this you??” and “hey, I’ve been having better sex and longer with this here” direct messages which can appear to be personal correspondence from one of your followers. Once the particular shortened URLs are clicked, the user is taking to a Twitter log in page which at first glance appears to be the original. Rather, the page is a copy cat which lures the reader into giving up their log in and password. From there the process continues.
If you’re worried about Twitter phishing scams you can follow Twitter’s official safety account that spotlights what is legit and what is not.
Companies: Twitter
The latest victims according to The Gaurdian are several well known individuals and groups, including the UK’s Press Complaints Commission, BBC’s own Nick Higham, The Guardian’s Matt Wells and Environmental Minister Ed Miliband. Even First Direct, a popular bank, fell victim to the scheme. A seemingly nerve racking thought considering the amount of personal information available. Though it appears the company did assure customers that no personal data was compromised.
Twitter phishing attacks usually appear as tweets or direct messages asking to click a URL and enter credentials which then hacks their accounts and continues the spread to their followers. The two notable phishing attacks have come in the form of “this you??” and “hey, I’ve been having better sex and longer with this here” direct messages which can appear to be personal correspondence from one of your followers. Once the particular shortened URLs are clicked, the user is taking to a Twitter log in page which at first glance appears to be the original. Rather, the page is a copy cat which lures the reader into giving up their log in and password. From there the process continues.
If you’re worried about Twitter phishing scams you can follow Twitter’s official safety account that spotlights what is legit and what is not.
Companies: Twitter
Baidu raises $50M to exploit China’s online video explosion
The online video business in China is seeing explosive growth, as Chinese consumers learn how to capture and watch video and as Chinese advertisers seek to boost their branding. Several several emerging Chinese companies are scrambling to exploit it — so far, few U.S. companies are there.
Baidu, the leading Chinese search engine company, said today it has raised $50 million from private equity firm Providence Equity Partners to pump into Baidu’s new online video unit. The unit, a separate corporate entity called Qiyi, is licensing premium video content and running ads beside it online. Baidu will own maintain majority ownership of the company. Baidu is hoping to use its search engine prowess to drive traffic to the new company, much like Google has featured links to the videos hosted by its video company, YouTube.
It comes at a time when China’s leading online video company Youku is boasting impressive growth with its own premium video advertising business. The company’s chief executive, Victor Koo, visited the U.S. this week to meet with bankers as he begins to prepare the groundwork for a possible initial public offering over the next few years. Youku generated about 28 million in gross revenue last year, he said. This comes mostly from advertising on its premium content videos (you subtract about 20 percent of that for agency rebates, leaving about $22 million in net revenue). He expects revenue to at least double this year, and then to double again in 2011. He spoke at a Goldman Sachs conference, and stopped by VentureBeat offices in San Francisco for an interview. The company launched in 2006, and only began trying to monetize its content in 2008. Youku has 30 million unique viewers a day, and 200 million a month, he said, citing Nielsen and iResearch.
China’s media industry is particularly attractive for emerging companies, Koo said, because the premium film and video content is so fragmented there — and not dominated by a half-dozen media conglomerates like it is in the U.S. Decades of significant regulation of the media industry has meant that each Chinese city has its own independent media channel. The larger cities, such as Shanghai, have up to nine channels. Another reason why China is ripe for more video companies is because people there are only now starting to catch on to the habit of taking video and posting them online. Chinese consumers have lagged the U.S. by several years, he said. Finally, in freshly capitalistic China, many brands are still establishing themselves with consumers, and so are motivated to buy visual advertising, including 15- to 20-second TV spots. That urge is greater than in the U.S., where many brands are already established, and where advertisers are more interested in buying text links to boost lead and sales performance directly.
Companies: Baidu, Providence Equity Partners, Youku
People: Victor Koo
Baidu, the leading Chinese search engine company, said today it has raised $50 million from private equity firm Providence Equity Partners to pump into Baidu’s new online video unit. The unit, a separate corporate entity called Qiyi, is licensing premium video content and running ads beside it online. Baidu will own maintain majority ownership of the company. Baidu is hoping to use its search engine prowess to drive traffic to the new company, much like Google has featured links to the videos hosted by its video company, YouTube.
It comes at a time when China’s leading online video company Youku is boasting impressive growth with its own premium video advertising business. The company’s chief executive, Victor Koo, visited the U.S. this week to meet with bankers as he begins to prepare the groundwork for a possible initial public offering over the next few years. Youku generated about 28 million in gross revenue last year, he said. This comes mostly from advertising on its premium content videos (you subtract about 20 percent of that for agency rebates, leaving about $22 million in net revenue). He expects revenue to at least double this year, and then to double again in 2011. He spoke at a Goldman Sachs conference, and stopped by VentureBeat offices in San Francisco for an interview. The company launched in 2006, and only began trying to monetize its content in 2008. Youku has 30 million unique viewers a day, and 200 million a month, he said, citing Nielsen and iResearch.
China’s media industry is particularly attractive for emerging companies, Koo said, because the premium film and video content is so fragmented there — and not dominated by a half-dozen media conglomerates like it is in the U.S. Decades of significant regulation of the media industry has meant that each Chinese city has its own independent media channel. The larger cities, such as Shanghai, have up to nine channels. Another reason why China is ripe for more video companies is because people there are only now starting to catch on to the habit of taking video and posting them online. Chinese consumers have lagged the U.S. by several years, he said. Finally, in freshly capitalistic China, many brands are still establishing themselves with consumers, and so are motivated to buy visual advertising, including 15- to 20-second TV spots. That urge is greater than in the U.S., where many brands are already established, and where advertisers are more interested in buying text links to boost lead and sales performance directly.
Companies: Baidu, Providence Equity Partners, Youku
People: Victor Koo
Apple patent reveals iPhone camera swiping gestures
Patently Apple has the word on a patent filed by Apple yesterday that has the potential to change the way users interact with the iPhone. The patent shows off a new method for finger gestures on the iPhone that utilizes its camera, instead of the touchscreen.
As demonstrated by the patent, there are several ways the camera gestures can be used: When listening to voicemail on the iPhone with the phone held up to your ear, you can swipe the camera lens to fast-forward or rewind the message. Another example shows the user navigating the iPhone’s interface by swiping the camera lens. It could potentially allow for better one-handed navigation of the iPhone while viewing a web page, or some other sort of document that usually requires constant scrolling.
Also mentioned in the patent is the addition of “tap control” — which allows the user to tap on the phone for specific functions. While listening to voicemails, for example, the user can tap on the phone to pause, or restart the message. The taps are detected using the iPhone’s accelerometer.
Judging from the figures, it’s likely that the camera gestures will require new hardware. The patent points to lens features that don’t exist on current iPhone models — specifically the ability to recognize gestures without having the camera turned on. Both the camera gestures and tap controls also sound vaguely reminiscent of the rumors we heard in January regarding a touch-sensitive case in the upcoming fourth-gen iPhone. Since the technology requires just a camera and accelerometer, we’ll likely see it implemented in the iPad next year as well.
The focus with these new technologies seems to be on one-handed control, as well as control of the device while not looking at the screen. If implemented as demonstrated, the features have the potential to break new ground in smartphone navigation. And if Apple is awarded the patent, they’ll have a lock on some very nifty features that its smartphone competitors can’t touch.
[Image via Patently Apple]
Tags: iPhone
Companies: Apple
As demonstrated by the patent, there are several ways the camera gestures can be used: When listening to voicemail on the iPhone with the phone held up to your ear, you can swipe the camera lens to fast-forward or rewind the message. Another example shows the user navigating the iPhone’s interface by swiping the camera lens. It could potentially allow for better one-handed navigation of the iPhone while viewing a web page, or some other sort of document that usually requires constant scrolling.
Also mentioned in the patent is the addition of “tap control” — which allows the user to tap on the phone for specific functions. While listening to voicemails, for example, the user can tap on the phone to pause, or restart the message. The taps are detected using the iPhone’s accelerometer.
Judging from the figures, it’s likely that the camera gestures will require new hardware. The patent points to lens features that don’t exist on current iPhone models — specifically the ability to recognize gestures without having the camera turned on. Both the camera gestures and tap controls also sound vaguely reminiscent of the rumors we heard in January regarding a touch-sensitive case in the upcoming fourth-gen iPhone. Since the technology requires just a camera and accelerometer, we’ll likely see it implemented in the iPad next year as well.
The focus with these new technologies seems to be on one-handed control, as well as control of the device while not looking at the screen. If implemented as demonstrated, the features have the potential to break new ground in smartphone navigation. And if Apple is awarded the patent, they’ll have a lock on some very nifty features that its smartphone competitors can’t touch.
[Image via Patently Apple]
Tags: iPhone
Companies: Apple
Heavy Rain: I just changed a diaper. Can this be a video game?
“Did I really just do that?” I ask myself, part way into playing “Heavy Rain,” the new, uh, video game for the PlayStation 3.
Moments before, I faced a unique problem—unique to video games that is. A baby was crying. She had a dirty diaper. And her mother was unable to car for her. In order to advance the game, I had to mash a few buttons in proper sequence to change her diaper. Call it The Diaper Combo.
“There you go, fresh new baby,” our hero triumphantly said, after I quickly mastered the challenge. It was then implied that I would need to feed the underdeveloped mammal. Having never done this before (in a game), I smiled at the prospect. But I wonder: Is this even a video game?
No, says designer David Cage, attempting to distance his work from more popular alternatives. “This is not a video game,” he answers bluntly. “For 20 years, the video game industry has defined interacting as shooting. When I told some publishers that my heroes would not have weapons, they were puzzled. ‘What type of video game could it be if you cannot shoot?’ they asked.”
There is a story here. In the plot, a serial killer is loose. People go missing and four days later, their bodies are found. An origami creation on the body is the only clue. Another person goes missing, and the player has to solve the mystery before the next body appears.
In a traditional sense, Cage is right about how this is not a game. I have no weapon. I don’t drive cars. I can’t jump onto platforms, and there are no magical mushrooms. If I die, there isn’t a game over screen—I simply take control the next living character.
But I’m playing this whatchamacallit on a machine called a “PlayStation,” with a joypad even, so surely it’s a video game.
It most certainly is, says game consultant Adrian Crook. An adventure game to be exact. “‘Heavy Rain’ is an innovative throwback to adventure games like ‘Countdown,’ ‘Full Throttle,’ and ‘Myst,’” he says. Like “Heavy Rain,” some of the best adventure games “were primarily cinematic experiences that were visually stunning for their time and easy to enjoy because they lacked complex control schemes.”
In other words, it’s a familiar genre in new clothing. “It pushes the envelope of its craft visually and narratively, while allowing gamers who can’t handle the intensity of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 to experience the best their console has to offer,” Crook adds.
Unlike previous adventure games, though, “Heavy Rain” resonates more with mature audiences, thanks to situations that are close to home. In addition to babysitting, players are asked to help their kids do homework, set the dinner table, and care for a suicidal mother.
“Gameplay is no longer a challenge for the player; it becomes an element of the immersion,” explains Cage. And the effect works. Seemingly mundane tasks pulls the player in.
But the novelty of feeding, cleaning, and managing day-to-day task would quickly grow boring. So to spice things up, “Heavy Rain” asks the player a hypothetical and dramatic question shortly into the game: How far would you go to save someone you love?
“‘I would do anything for you,’ is something we have all said before,” says Cage. “Heavy Rain questions the player on what exactly this sentence means. Are you really prepared to do anything for love?”
Later in the game, you’re asked by villains to cut off your thumb in exchange for information on the whereabouts of a loved one. “Should I do this?” I thought to myself, upon encountering the dilemma. “I like my thumb. Will I need it later?” Although it’s a game, it’s not an easy choice.
And that’s the point, says Cage. “The game is a safe environment in which you can answer serious questions without taking risks,” he says. As Austin Powers might say, it’s “consequence-free—yeah, baby!”
Admittedly, “Heavy Rain” effectively evokes strong emotions. But veteran players might balk at its heavy reliance on story and easy controls, something Crook recognizes. “The crux of the core game industry’s issues with ‘Heavy Rain’ appear to be that [Quantic Dream, the developer] somehow ‘cheated’ with a big story or a series of quick-time [controller] events, and because of that, it’s less of a game,” he says.
“I don’t buy this at all,” he adds. “If a game elicits emotion from players—whether that game is ‘Farmville,’ ‘Bejewelled,’ ‘World of Warcraft,’ ‘Modern Warfare’ or ‘Heavy Rain’—I don’t think it’s worth quibbling about whether the methods it used to achieve that emotional response were worthy enough.”
In short, video games are about feeling, not control. Which brings us back to what a video game can or can’t be, and why Cage is so adverse to calling his game “game.” Specifically, he doesn’t want non-gamers to overlook his work due to generalizations, because if they do, “games will be about swords, guns, and zombies for many years to come.”
Having played “Heavy Rain,” I think it’s best described as a “murder mystery adventure game.” Cage responds with “not exactly,” favoring instead the self-described “interactive thriller.” In any case, the mature themed experience is novel in its approach, and it’s obvious Cage and his team are hopeful the game can entice new players.
Will it work? As a fun game, yes, says Crook. As the next big thing? Not really. “I wouldn’t place any of my own money on the bet that ‘interactive movies’ will open up the gaming market to those not already interested.”
Whatever the case, The Diaper Combo has made it’s mark.
Companies: Sony
Moments before, I faced a unique problem—unique to video games that is. A baby was crying. She had a dirty diaper. And her mother was unable to car for her. In order to advance the game, I had to mash a few buttons in proper sequence to change her diaper. Call it The Diaper Combo.
“There you go, fresh new baby,” our hero triumphantly said, after I quickly mastered the challenge. It was then implied that I would need to feed the underdeveloped mammal. Having never done this before (in a game), I smiled at the prospect. But I wonder: Is this even a video game?
No, says designer David Cage, attempting to distance his work from more popular alternatives. “This is not a video game,” he answers bluntly. “For 20 years, the video game industry has defined interacting as shooting. When I told some publishers that my heroes would not have weapons, they were puzzled. ‘What type of video game could it be if you cannot shoot?’ they asked.”
There is a story here. In the plot, a serial killer is loose. People go missing and four days later, their bodies are found. An origami creation on the body is the only clue. Another person goes missing, and the player has to solve the mystery before the next body appears.
In a traditional sense, Cage is right about how this is not a game. I have no weapon. I don’t drive cars. I can’t jump onto platforms, and there are no magical mushrooms. If I die, there isn’t a game over screen—I simply take control the next living character.
But I’m playing this whatchamacallit on a machine called a “PlayStation,” with a joypad even, so surely it’s a video game.
It most certainly is, says game consultant Adrian Crook. An adventure game to be exact. “‘Heavy Rain’ is an innovative throwback to adventure games like ‘Countdown,’ ‘Full Throttle,’ and ‘Myst,’” he says. Like “Heavy Rain,” some of the best adventure games “were primarily cinematic experiences that were visually stunning for their time and easy to enjoy because they lacked complex control schemes.”
In other words, it’s a familiar genre in new clothing. “It pushes the envelope of its craft visually and narratively, while allowing gamers who can’t handle the intensity of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 to experience the best their console has to offer,” Crook adds.
Unlike previous adventure games, though, “Heavy Rain” resonates more with mature audiences, thanks to situations that are close to home. In addition to babysitting, players are asked to help their kids do homework, set the dinner table, and care for a suicidal mother.
“Gameplay is no longer a challenge for the player; it becomes an element of the immersion,” explains Cage. And the effect works. Seemingly mundane tasks pulls the player in.
But the novelty of feeding, cleaning, and managing day-to-day task would quickly grow boring. So to spice things up, “Heavy Rain” asks the player a hypothetical and dramatic question shortly into the game: How far would you go to save someone you love?
“‘I would do anything for you,’ is something we have all said before,” says Cage. “Heavy Rain questions the player on what exactly this sentence means. Are you really prepared to do anything for love?”
Later in the game, you’re asked by villains to cut off your thumb in exchange for information on the whereabouts of a loved one. “Should I do this?” I thought to myself, upon encountering the dilemma. “I like my thumb. Will I need it later?” Although it’s a game, it’s not an easy choice.
And that’s the point, says Cage. “The game is a safe environment in which you can answer serious questions without taking risks,” he says. As Austin Powers might say, it’s “consequence-free—yeah, baby!”
Admittedly, “Heavy Rain” effectively evokes strong emotions. But veteran players might balk at its heavy reliance on story and easy controls, something Crook recognizes. “The crux of the core game industry’s issues with ‘Heavy Rain’ appear to be that [Quantic Dream, the developer] somehow ‘cheated’ with a big story or a series of quick-time [controller] events, and because of that, it’s less of a game,” he says.
“I don’t buy this at all,” he adds. “If a game elicits emotion from players—whether that game is ‘Farmville,’ ‘Bejewelled,’ ‘World of Warcraft,’ ‘Modern Warfare’ or ‘Heavy Rain’—I don’t think it’s worth quibbling about whether the methods it used to achieve that emotional response were worthy enough.”
In short, video games are about feeling, not control. Which brings us back to what a video game can or can’t be, and why Cage is so adverse to calling his game “game.” Specifically, he doesn’t want non-gamers to overlook his work due to generalizations, because if they do, “games will be about swords, guns, and zombies for many years to come.”
Having played “Heavy Rain,” I think it’s best described as a “murder mystery adventure game.” Cage responds with “not exactly,” favoring instead the self-described “interactive thriller.” In any case, the mature themed experience is novel in its approach, and it’s obvious Cage and his team are hopeful the game can entice new players.
Will it work? As a fun game, yes, says Crook. As the next big thing? Not really. “I wouldn’t place any of my own money on the bet that ‘interactive movies’ will open up the gaming market to those not already interested.”
Whatever the case, The Diaper Combo has made it’s mark.
Companies: Sony
Sprint Pre og Pixi eiere: Forvent Palm webOS 1,4 dag med video-opptak og Flash 10 på slep
En gang i dag, 26. Feburary, 2010, Sprint Pre og Pixi eiere skulle få en hyggelig liten overraskelse på sine telefoner. Det virker som Sprint og Palm er klar til å levere de siste webOS oppdateringen, som skulle bringe de nevnte oppdateringene sammen med en rekke andre forbedringer beleilig oppført for gjennomlesing din etter å ha hoppet.
GamesBeat@GDC adds fireside chat on building blockbuster franchises: Spike TV, Bungie, BioWare
We’re honored to announce that Geoff Keighley, host of Spike TV’s Game Trailers TV with Geoff Keighley television show, will host a fireside chat for our upcoming GamesBeat@GDC executive game conference. The topic will be How to Build a Blockbuster Franchise, and this fireside chat will have some heavy firepower.
The event is set for March 10 in San Francisco at the Game Developers Conference in the Moscone Convention Center. Keighley has covered video games for more than half his life, starting at the age of 13.
He is a journalist, television personality, and producer. Today, he is the host and executive producer of the No. 1-rated videogame show on TV and has a talent and development deal with MTV Networks Entertainment Group. Behind the camera, Keighley is one of the most prolific producers of videogame television, including Gears of War: Race to Launch for MTV, the landmark 5-hour documentary “I, Videogame” for the Discovery Channel, and various live event specials at the G4 network. He serves as co-chairman of the Game Critics Awards, an independent group of journalists who award the annual Best of E3 and Game of the Year awards.
Keighley will host a chat with two of the most interesting blockbuster producers in the video game industry:
Joseph Staten, design director at Bungie, the developer of Microsoft’s Halo series of video games, which have sold more than 30 million units since 2001. Staten joined Bungie in 1998 as the company was getting ready to ship Myth II for the PC and Mac. He has worked on every Bungie title since then. Bungie was acquired by Microsoft in 2000 in preparation for the launch of the original Xbox game console. Staten worked on the original Halo, which became the smash hit that established Microsoft’s presence in the console game business. He worked as cinematics director on subsequent Halo games and was the creative director for the now-canceled (we think) game collaboration with film director Peter Jackson. His contribution was as writer and creative director for Halo 3: ODST, which sold millions of units last fall. In 2007, Tor Books published Staten’s Halo: Contact Harvest, the fifth in a series of novels about Halo. It shot to No. 3 on the New York Times bestseller list. He is now working on a non-Halo, unannounced title at Bungie.
Ray Muzyka, general manager and CEO at BioWare, senior vice president and group general manager of RPG/MMO Group at Electronic Arts. Originally trained as a doctor, Muzyka began making games with his pal Greg Zeschuk. They co-founded BioWare in 1995 and built BioWare into one of the hottest makers of role-playing games for the PC and consoles. Their hits included Shattered Steel, the Baldur’s Gate series, MDK2, MDK2: Armageddon, the Neverwinter Nights series, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Jade Empire, and Mass Effect. Elevation Partners invested $400 million into BioWare as well as Pandemic and then sold the combined company to EA for $800 million in 2008. At EA, BioWare has just published a couple of big hits — Mass Effect 2 and Dragon Age Origins — and it is at work on a new Star Wars online game, The Old Republic.
Here’s a review of our Disruption 2.0 theme for the conference:
We’ll focus on the next disruptions that will happen in the video game industry. In the past couple of years, social games with virtual goods business models have proved themselves and shaken up the status quo. The iPhone has become a hot platform, and Apple hopes to extend further into games with the iPad. Digital distribution and online games are growing. Will these trends gather more momentum and prove to be sustainable, or will new platforms and business models disrupt the disruptors?
The big game companies and brands are maneuvering into the market, even as successful startups are consolidating their gains and acquiring companies. Are console game makers poised to make a comeback as the recession ends? As growth returns to the industry in 2010, who will be poised to take market share and define the next-generation of games?
Game companies that are doing the disrupting, adapting and growing will be speaking at the conference.
Who’s Got Game contest: Our deadline is fast-approaching for the contest for best game startup. We’ll close off applications for the contest at 5 pm Pacific time, on Friday, Feb. 26, so get your entry forms filled out. The top finalists will appear on stage at GamesBeat@GDC before a panel of expert judges. Those judges will select the winner.
For more conference info, check out our GamesBeat 2010 web site and our Facebook Group for GamesBeat@GDC. Our sponsors include the Georgia Department of Economic Development, PlaySpan, AdMob, and hi5.
The event is set for March 10 in San Francisco at the Game Developers Conference in the Moscone Convention Center. Keighley has covered video games for more than half his life, starting at the age of 13.
He is a journalist, television personality, and producer. Today, he is the host and executive producer of the No. 1-rated videogame show on TV and has a talent and development deal with MTV Networks Entertainment Group. Behind the camera, Keighley is one of the most prolific producers of videogame television, including Gears of War: Race to Launch for MTV, the landmark 5-hour documentary “I, Videogame” for the Discovery Channel, and various live event specials at the G4 network. He serves as co-chairman of the Game Critics Awards, an independent group of journalists who award the annual Best of E3 and Game of the Year awards.
Keighley will host a chat with two of the most interesting blockbuster producers in the video game industry:
Joseph Staten, design director at Bungie, the developer of Microsoft’s Halo series of video games, which have sold more than 30 million units since 2001. Staten joined Bungie in 1998 as the company was getting ready to ship Myth II for the PC and Mac. He has worked on every Bungie title since then. Bungie was acquired by Microsoft in 2000 in preparation for the launch of the original Xbox game console. Staten worked on the original Halo, which became the smash hit that established Microsoft’s presence in the console game business. He worked as cinematics director on subsequent Halo games and was the creative director for the now-canceled (we think) game collaboration with film director Peter Jackson. His contribution was as writer and creative director for Halo 3: ODST, which sold millions of units last fall. In 2007, Tor Books published Staten’s Halo: Contact Harvest, the fifth in a series of novels about Halo. It shot to No. 3 on the New York Times bestseller list. He is now working on a non-Halo, unannounced title at Bungie.
Ray Muzyka, general manager and CEO at BioWare, senior vice president and group general manager of RPG/MMO Group at Electronic Arts. Originally trained as a doctor, Muzyka began making games with his pal Greg Zeschuk. They co-founded BioWare in 1995 and built BioWare into one of the hottest makers of role-playing games for the PC and consoles. Their hits included Shattered Steel, the Baldur’s Gate series, MDK2, MDK2: Armageddon, the Neverwinter Nights series, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Jade Empire, and Mass Effect. Elevation Partners invested $400 million into BioWare as well as Pandemic and then sold the combined company to EA for $800 million in 2008. At EA, BioWare has just published a couple of big hits — Mass Effect 2 and Dragon Age Origins — and it is at work on a new Star Wars online game, The Old Republic.
Here’s a review of our Disruption 2.0 theme for the conference:
We’ll focus on the next disruptions that will happen in the video game industry. In the past couple of years, social games with virtual goods business models have proved themselves and shaken up the status quo. The iPhone has become a hot platform, and Apple hopes to extend further into games with the iPad. Digital distribution and online games are growing. Will these trends gather more momentum and prove to be sustainable, or will new platforms and business models disrupt the disruptors?
The big game companies and brands are maneuvering into the market, even as successful startups are consolidating their gains and acquiring companies. Are console game makers poised to make a comeback as the recession ends? As growth returns to the industry in 2010, who will be poised to take market share and define the next-generation of games?
Game companies that are doing the disrupting, adapting and growing will be speaking at the conference.
Who’s Got Game contest: Our deadline is fast-approaching for the contest for best game startup. We’ll close off applications for the contest at 5 pm Pacific time, on Friday, Feb. 26, so get your entry forms filled out. The top finalists will appear on stage at GamesBeat@GDC before a panel of expert judges. Those judges will select the winner.
For more conference info, check out our GamesBeat 2010 web site and our Facebook Group for GamesBeat@GDC. Our sponsors include the Georgia Department of Economic Development, PlaySpan, AdMob, and hi5.
"Vi jobber med en API:« This Is Why embargoer Suck
Advarsel: Den lille dyr forbannelse litt. Denne søte lille videoen er ordrett hva vi går gjennom på en daglig basis med PR people. Den forteller utgangspunktet vårt daglige samtaler med fremmede som går omtrent slik: PR Person: "Vi har store nyheter! Men dere ikke signere handelsforbud." Me: "Greit, vi vil signere en embargo." Pr person: " Logg dette i to eksemplarer og fakse en kopi til Nepal og Fedex kopi til administrerende direktør vår. "Me:" Ferdig. Hva er det. "pr person:" Det er en ny sandwich. med bacon!
Et intervju med tegnere Hvem Tegn Toothpaste for dinner
Tomgang i CrunchGear chatterom den andre dagen, sier John til meg, det er John Biggs, sier han, «Why don't you intervju at fyren fra Toothpaste for dinner?" Jeg sier til John "Hvorfor?" og Johannes sier: "Han virker som en hyggelig fyr." Hvem skal jeg argumentere med John? Plus, fyren fra Tannkrem til middag bor i Columbus, der jeg bor, så jeg sendte fyren en e-post. Vi hadde litt frem og tilbake, og han introduserte meg til sin kone, Natalie Dee, så jeg intervjuet henne også. De er faktisk hyggelige mennesker, og jeg likte å intervjue dem. Jeg håper du lese mitt intervju.
In The End, The Apple Anti-Porn Crusade handler om Image, ikke penger eller fornærmet Ladies '
Husk at hele porno crackdown at ingen bryr seg om lenger? Lurer på hvorfor det skjedde? Det var ikke pengene. Det var ikke hyklersk. Det var ikke om å forsvare kvinners rettigheter til App Store unflustered. Det var om bildet. Her er Gruber er overbevisende og ekte argument: Jeg tror Apple begynte å bli kvalm om var ikke sexy programmer selv, men cheesiness at sexy programmer (og deres framtredende i bestselgende lister) var skjenke på generell følelse og vibe av App Store. En ting jeg ikke var klar over før siste protestene var i hvilken grad disse apps var siver inn i ulike ikke-underholdning kategorier. Eg, som halve "nye" apps i "produktivitet"-kategorien inneholdt bilder av store-breasted bikinikledde kvinner. Disse apps ble stengt midlertidig. De vil være tilbake, og forbudet ikke var om å ikke fornærme våre sainted mødre. Det var om å gjøre en endelig oppleve at folk ønsker å besøke og som Chef Ramsay nedleggelse Casa Roma i stedet tjene resten av natten måltider i en tilfeldig, slurvete måte, Apple besluttet å stenge ting ned og gjøre sine beslutninger. Dette i sin tur styrker Apple-ledelsen å ta en beslutning.
Palm CEO snakker om skuffende salg
Stakkars Jon Rubinstein. Etter en sterk, tidlige trykk, har Palm salget bremset og inntektene har tørket opp med $ 300 - $ 320 millioner i Q3. Deres "veiledning" til Wall Street AKA hvor mye de forventes å gjøre? $ 1.6-1.8 milliarder. Bloops. Brevet er over for WSJ men her er et utdrag. Denne morgenen vi annonserte foreløpige resultater for tredje kvartal 2010. Siden kvartalet har ennå ikke lukket, er det for tidlig å gi eksakte tall, men vi sa at vi forventer å rapportere driftsinntekter for 3. kvartal mellom $ 300 og $ 320 millioner. Vi har også annonsert at vi forventer at våre inntekter for dette regnskapsåret til å falle under veiledning vi ga til Wall Street, som varierte fra $ 1,6 til $ 1,8 milliarder kroner. Som vi nevnte i vår pressemelding, våre mykere enn forventet ytelse skyldes tregere enn forventet kunde adopsjon av våre produkter, som i sin tur har bedt våre amerikanske teleoperatøren partnere til å sette ytterligere bestillinger på vent foreløpig. På en positiv notat, forventer vi å gå ut av kvartalet med over 500 millioner dollar i kontanter på balansen. Vi har planlagt å annonsere vår fulle økonomiske resultater i mars.
Entreprenører har ingen regler
Da hans sønn annonserte at han skulle bli en gründer, pustet Accuray's John Adler et lettelsens sukk. Trip Adler, som gikk på å løpe Scribd, hadde alltid vært en fri sjel - og senior Adler bemerker at han lykkes, får sin selvstendige holdning og det faktum at vellykkede oppstarter lage sine egne regler. Nedenfor far-sønn team diskutere råd John ga i denne Entreprenør Thought Leader Forelesning ved Stanford University. Tags: Stanford University
GamesBeat @ GDC Who's Got Game beste spillet oppstart konkurransen Fristen er i dag
Today at 5 pm Pacific Time er fristen for innsendelser til GamesBeat @ GDC Who's Got Game beste spillet oppstart konkurransen. Hvis du er et spill entreprenør, kan du fylle ut en søknad her. Vi har noen gode innlegg, men vil gjerne bli flere. Finalistene velges tidlig i neste uke og vil få mulighet til å presentere foran hundrevis av movers and shakers innen spillbransjen på vår konferanse 10. mars. Vårt panel av dommere - moderator Jeremy Liew av Lightspeed Venture Partners, Eric Goldberg av Crossover Technologies, Joe Hyrkin av Trinity Ventures, Jamil Moledina av Electronic Arts partnere, og Patrick Mork i GetJar - vil vurdere finalistene på scenen på GamesBeat @ GDC og plukke en vinner.
Review: 'A Prophet "fortjener sin heder
The favoritt til å plukke opp Oscar for beste fremmedspråklige film i år, Jacques Audiard er gripende kriminalitet episke« en profet "er den type film som aldri går ut av stilen.
Ikke alle 'Idol'-ize Ellen
Allerede før Ellen DeGeneres tok hennes plass i "American Idol" brølet begynte.
Hulu Investor injiserer $ 50 millioner i Baidu's Online Video Venture, Qiyi
Hulu investor Providence Equity Partners er pumping $ 50 millioner i en ny online video selskapet satt opp av kinesisk Internett-søk giganten Baidu. Nyheten kommer ca 7 uker etter Baidu bekreftet planer om å etablerte et nytt eget selskap for å gi lisens, reklame-støttet elektronisk videoinnhold til kinesisk Internett-brukere.
Barer og sektordiagrammer: en undersøkelse til mobiltelefon bruk og eiere
Android brukere er hovedsakelig menn og iPod Touch eiere er hovedsakelig tenåringer. Hvordan vet vi? Vi snublet på en svært interessant undersøkelse courtesy of AdMob, det er sånn. For eksempel visste du at ...
Ron Conway Raising $ 10 Angel fondet å utvide SV Angel
Super-angel Ron Conway, som er en av de mest produktive og suksessfulle investorer i Silicon Valley, er å utvide sin SV Angel fond for å inkludere utenfor investorer (han har også investert bare sine egne midler i oppstarter). Han er å skaffe et nytt fond på rundt 10 millioner dollar, har vi bekreftet. Conway, som ble kalt «Godfather of Silicon Valley" i en bok av Gary Rivlin, anses av mange å være den viktigste engelen investor i teknologi. Han ser på de fleste nye oppstarter før noen andre, og en investering av firmaet hans er en alvorlig milepæl. Hans dype bånd til de øverste nivå venture kapital firmaer også sikre rask introduksjon og en lang se når den tid kommer til å heve en andre og større runde av kapital. Han var en av de første investorene i Google, og har, sier han, investert i hundrevis av oppstarter i løpet av de siste tyve årene. Hans nåværende investeringer omfatter Facebook Twitter, Digg og omtrent alle andre oppstart av meldingen du har hørt om. Med andre ord, er han ikke skal ha noen problemer med å finne takers for 10 millioner dollar fondet.
FriendFeed ‘majorly down’, only bloggers seem to care
FriendFeed, the website for social network aggregation and real-time communication, has been down for at least three hours now (I’m writing this shortly after 1am Pacific time). A FriendFeed team member tweeted that the site is “majorly down due to major power outage for multiple racks.”
Both the outage and the response will probably contribute to a sense of the site’s irrelevance. Personally, when I saw that FriendFeed was down, my first thought was, “Well, that was inevitable.” Granted, it sounds like this outage was caused by factors outside of FriendFeed’s control. But I’ve felt that the site has been stumbling along at slower speeds recently, and even if that’s just my imagination, it’s certainly true that it has stagnated in terms of any improvements or new features since Facebook acquired FriendFeed last year.
Maintaining FriendFeed, much less continuing any serious development on it, is not a priority for Facebook — it’s probably more interested in incorporating FriendFeed-like features into its own site, and putting Gmail- and FriendFeed-creator Paul Buchheit to work on an unidentified project.
An even worse sign is the relative indifference to the news. When TechCrunch’s MG Siegler wrote about the outage earlier tonight, he said a paltry 50 people had tweeted about the outage, far below what you see when other well-known web services go down. The tweets have gone up substantially, due in part to MG’s post, but we’re still not talking about a flood of complaints here. The FriendFeed downtime message, for example, hasn’t even been retweeted 100 times.
The only other person in my Twitter stream to remark on the downtime is Inside Facebook’s Eric Eldon. You might remember that both Eric and MG are VentureBeat alumni, and in fact they were the ones who set up the private room in FriendFeed that we still use for communication between the VentureBeat team. Perhaps this outage will push us to finally move off FriendFeed and onto a communication platform that’s a) designed for business, and b) has a better chance of survival.
Me, I’m still excited about the possibilities of Google Buzz as a business tool, especially since it incorporates a number of FriendFeed-like features. And hey, it’s not like Gmail ever goes down.
Companies: Facebook, friendfeed
Both the outage and the response will probably contribute to a sense of the site’s irrelevance. Personally, when I saw that FriendFeed was down, my first thought was, “Well, that was inevitable.” Granted, it sounds like this outage was caused by factors outside of FriendFeed’s control. But I’ve felt that the site has been stumbling along at slower speeds recently, and even if that’s just my imagination, it’s certainly true that it has stagnated in terms of any improvements or new features since Facebook acquired FriendFeed last year.
Maintaining FriendFeed, much less continuing any serious development on it, is not a priority for Facebook — it’s probably more interested in incorporating FriendFeed-like features into its own site, and putting Gmail- and FriendFeed-creator Paul Buchheit to work on an unidentified project.
An even worse sign is the relative indifference to the news. When TechCrunch’s MG Siegler wrote about the outage earlier tonight, he said a paltry 50 people had tweeted about the outage, far below what you see when other well-known web services go down. The tweets have gone up substantially, due in part to MG’s post, but we’re still not talking about a flood of complaints here. The FriendFeed downtime message, for example, hasn’t even been retweeted 100 times.
The only other person in my Twitter stream to remark on the downtime is Inside Facebook’s Eric Eldon. You might remember that both Eric and MG are VentureBeat alumni, and in fact they were the ones who set up the private room in FriendFeed that we still use for communication between the VentureBeat team. Perhaps this outage will push us to finally move off FriendFeed and onto a communication platform that’s a) designed for business, and b) has a better chance of survival.
Me, I’m still excited about the possibilities of Google Buzz as a business tool, especially since it incorporates a number of FriendFeed-like features. And hey, it’s not like Gmail ever goes down.
Companies: Facebook, friendfeed
Vararepresentanter ned på Wayne Newton gjeld tvist
Nevada sheriff's varamedlemmer ned torsdag på Wayne Newton's 38-hektar store ranchen med movers på slep for å utføre et inkassokrav handling, men ble avfeid, sa tjenestemenn CNN.
torsdag 25. februar 2010
FriendFeed Goes Down Hard. Begge de andre brukerne Pissed.
FriendFeed er nede akkurat nå. Det har vært nede de siste 30 minutter eller så. Dessverre er det ikke aktuelt lenger. Ikke fordi, som Twitter gamle, det er nede hele tiden, men fordi det virker som ingen egentlig bruker den lenger. Case in point, det har vært nede i over 30 minutter, og det er kanskje 50 totalt tweets om det (og flere er fra samme brukerne). Det betyr at av alle de millioner av mennesker verden rundt på Twitter, en full 50 av dem omsorg nok til tweet når FriendFeed er nede. Det er vanskelig å forestille seg noen annen tjeneste som kom til størrelsen FriendFeed gjorde (som gitt, var ikke stor), bare får 50 tweets hvis den går ned.
Location Will Be This Year’s Twitter At SXSW
We're two weeks away from the SXSW Interactive, a drinking festival with a side of tech that takes place each year in Austin, Texas (before the larger SXSW film and music portions). While the conference itself is interesting, more interesting is usually the "next big thing" that comes out of it. And I think I already know what it will be this year.
Three years ago, Twitter famously was the talk of the conference (it won the web award that year). While sure, it didn't explode into mainstream popularity until sometime later, the writing was on the wall for the early-adopters who started using it there or shortly thereafter. Two years ago, it was arguably Twitter again that was the must-use service throughout the conference as it continued to mature. But last year saw some new entries rise. Both Foursquare and Gowalla launched at the conference, with Foursquare gaining much of the momentum coming out of the conference (as some of us predicted). And this year, I suspect it will be largely an extension of that, with location services in general being the talk of the show.
Three years ago, Twitter famously was the talk of the conference (it won the web award that year). While sure, it didn't explode into mainstream popularity until sometime later, the writing was on the wall for the early-adopters who started using it there or shortly thereafter. Two years ago, it was arguably Twitter again that was the must-use service throughout the conference as it continued to mature. But last year saw some new entries rise. Both Foursquare and Gowalla launched at the conference, with Foursquare gaining much of the momentum coming out of the conference (as some of us predicted). And this year, I suspect it will be largely an extension of that, with location services in general being the talk of the show.
MySpace DMCAs Det lekket produktnøkkel Document Vi Postet
På tirsdag postet vi en intern MySpace produkt dokumentet presenterer detaljerte anbefalinger om å gjenoppbygge MySpace utbygger / apps plattform. Inkludert i dette innlegget var en embed av dokumentet vert på Scribd. MySpace har valgt å sende en DMCA-varsel til Scribd å få dokumentet fjernet, og Scribd overholdt. MySpace ikke kopiere oss på varsel, eller sende en annen melding til oss om innholdet. Så vi setter det på våre egne servere. Du kan laste det i all sin prakt her. Dersom du ønsker å bekjempe dette, MySpace , du har kommet gjennom våre advokater. Nå er jeg alle riled opp.
How Does Compete Get Its Web Traffic Data? At Least One Way Sounds Very Sketchy.
A month ago, Jason Calacanis went on a rant about why everyone should boycott comScore. He felt they were using sketchy tactics to bully people into their pay-to-play model for measuring web analytics. He also noted that their free competitors like Quantcast, Google, and Compete would soon eat their lunch. Both Quantcast and Google (Analytics) offer direct counting of pageviews (but even these methods can be abused). But you may wonder how exactly Compete gets its numbers? It appears, that some sketchy tactics are (or at least were) employed, as well.
We were recently pointed to this post from last month by Ben Edelman, a Harvard privacy advocate. In it, he details the data the Upromise toolbar collects and sends out. This toolbar is used by college students looking for savings on various items across the web, and can be quite useful. But until a few weeks ago, it appears they were also sending web browsing (and more personal) data to Compete without anyone's knowledge. Writes Edelman:
We were recently pointed to this post from last month by Ben Edelman, a Harvard privacy advocate. In it, he details the data the Upromise toolbar collects and sends out. This toolbar is used by college students looking for savings on various items across the web, and can be quite useful. But until a few weeks ago, it appears they were also sending web browsing (and more personal) data to Compete without anyone's knowledge. Writes Edelman:
Facebook earns patent for news feed, publishes one on application affinity
Facebook earned a patent for its core news feed and published one for prioritizing communication from apps based on how closely users interact with them.
It’s hard to put too much weight into either patent because from a strategic perspective, Facebook would do better financially by prioritizing development on its advertising, metrics and payments offerings, than by pursuing a more litigious strategy of suing other companies. Both patents, which were found by AllFacebook, were also filed a long time ago; one in 2008 and the news feed one in 2006. The company iterates and adapts at a significantly faster pace.
Officially, this is what the news feed patent covers:
“A method for displaying a news feed in a social network environment is described. The method includes generating news items regarding activities associated with a user of a social network environment and attaching an informational link associated with at least one of the activities, to at least one of the news items, as well as limiting access to the news items to a predetermined set of viewers and assigning an order to the news items. The method further may further include displaying the news items in the assigned order to at least one viewing user of the predetermined set of viewers and dynamically limiting the number of news items displayed.”
The patents reveal a bit about different ways the company could have designed the news feed. In it, many approaches are described. The company could have created a news feed where users ranked the types of activities they wanted to see first, like relationships changes or events at the top.
Instead of just comments or likes, the calls to action under news feed items could have been more intricate, including e-mail prompts or a link to join a group.
According to the patent:
“…an active link may enable the viewing user 101a to download a photo added to the subject user’s 101b photo album, to enroll in a class the subject user 101b has enrolled in, to join a club the subject user 101b has joined, and so forth. In some embodiments, the active link and the informational link may enable the viewing user to perform the same function.”
Initially protested by 10 percent of the social network’s user base, the news feed has become a core part of Facebook’s experience by distributing shared content, status updates and profile changes through social groups.
“The launch of News Feed in 2006 was a pivotal moment in Facebook’s history and changed the way millions of people consumed and discovered information on the site,” said spokesperson Jaime Schopflin. “We’re humbled by the growth and adoption of News Feed over time and pleased with being awarded the patent.” The company hasn’t yet responded to questions on whether it will actively defend the patent.
The second patent covers how to allocate space for communication between applications and users. This was a core problem that the company had tried to solve since the beginning of the platform: developers were overwhelming users with notifications and prompts to use their apps. This technology would have ranked notifications from apps that users regularly interacted with in a positive way, higher than communication from others apps.
The patent might be somewhat moot now that the company is removing app-to-user notifications altogether starting next week. Developers will have to ask for user e-mails directly or request that they bookmark the app inside Facebook.
Tags: Facebook, News Feed, patents
Companies: Facebook
It’s hard to put too much weight into either patent because from a strategic perspective, Facebook would do better financially by prioritizing development on its advertising, metrics and payments offerings, than by pursuing a more litigious strategy of suing other companies. Both patents, which were found by AllFacebook, were also filed a long time ago; one in 2008 and the news feed one in 2006. The company iterates and adapts at a significantly faster pace.
Officially, this is what the news feed patent covers:
“A method for displaying a news feed in a social network environment is described. The method includes generating news items regarding activities associated with a user of a social network environment and attaching an informational link associated with at least one of the activities, to at least one of the news items, as well as limiting access to the news items to a predetermined set of viewers and assigning an order to the news items. The method further may further include displaying the news items in the assigned order to at least one viewing user of the predetermined set of viewers and dynamically limiting the number of news items displayed.”
The patents reveal a bit about different ways the company could have designed the news feed. In it, many approaches are described. The company could have created a news feed where users ranked the types of activities they wanted to see first, like relationships changes or events at the top.
Instead of just comments or likes, the calls to action under news feed items could have been more intricate, including e-mail prompts or a link to join a group.
According to the patent:
“…an active link may enable the viewing user 101a to download a photo added to the subject user’s 101b photo album, to enroll in a class the subject user 101b has enrolled in, to join a club the subject user 101b has joined, and so forth. In some embodiments, the active link and the informational link may enable the viewing user to perform the same function.”
Initially protested by 10 percent of the social network’s user base, the news feed has become a core part of Facebook’s experience by distributing shared content, status updates and profile changes through social groups.
“The launch of News Feed in 2006 was a pivotal moment in Facebook’s history and changed the way millions of people consumed and discovered information on the site,” said spokesperson Jaime Schopflin. “We’re humbled by the growth and adoption of News Feed over time and pleased with being awarded the patent.” The company hasn’t yet responded to questions on whether it will actively defend the patent.
The second patent covers how to allocate space for communication between applications and users. This was a core problem that the company had tried to solve since the beginning of the platform: developers were overwhelming users with notifications and prompts to use their apps. This technology would have ranked notifications from apps that users regularly interacted with in a positive way, higher than communication from others apps.
The patent might be somewhat moot now that the company is removing app-to-user notifications altogether starting next week. Developers will have to ask for user e-mails directly or request that they bookmark the app inside Facebook.
Tags: Facebook, News Feed, patents
Companies: Facebook
Manglende skuespillerens kropp funnet i parken, sier kilden
Skuespiller Andrew Koenig, savnet siden 14 februar, ble funnet død i Vancouver, British Colombia, torsdag, en kilde nær familien til CNN.
Tesla Motors nå leasing alle elektriske sportsbiler for bare $ 1658 per måned
Don't have $ 111,000 for Silicon Valley mest prestisjefylte auto merkevare? Tesla Motors er ofte vanskelige, men populær produsent av plug-in hot rods, e-post med nyheter om en ny leieavtale program. "Du kan ta umiddelbar levering av en ny 2010 Tesla Roadster eller Roadster Idrett," står det i innboksen min, "med en tre år, 30.000 kilometer kontrakt og med månedlige utbetalinger så lavt som $ 1658. På slutten av ordet, vil du kunne kjøpe den banebrytende Roadster eller betale en avgift og gange unna. " Ikke glem å budsjettet for forsikring, sørge for å være høyt på en to-seter med 248 hestekrefter bak førerens hode. The Tesla Roadster raketter fra null til 60 miles per time i mindre enn fire sekunder. Forsikring aktuarer hater det. Ikke for å skryte, men jeg tok en test tur i en prototype i 2006. Bilen føles trygg til tross for sin fart, takket være en lineær dreiemoment kurve og en høy PRM grense som hindrer de vanlige girskiftende jerkiness av bensindrevet high-performance cars. The Tesla akselererer jevnt hele veien fra stillstand til godt utover juridiske fartsgrenser. I første gear. Hvis prisen er fortsatt for høy for deg, henge på. Selskapet planlegger å selge en $ 50,000 BMW-esque sedan neste år. Selskaper: Tesla Motors
Planter g. Zombies spill genererer $ 1 million i omsetning på iPhone
Hvis du lansert en konsoll videospill og solgte 1 million dollar verdt, vil det være en trist fiasko. Men i det grønne feltet av iPhone, som er en stor hit. PopCap Games traff $ 1 million inntekter merke i de første ni dagene av salget av sin Planter g. Zombies spillet, solgte 300.000 enheter og sette ny rekord for AppStore lanseres. En konsoll spill som solgte 300.000 enheter kunne generere 18 millioner på detaljhandel. Men iPhone er viktig som et spill plattform fordi det er der mange brukere synes å være migrerer. Spillet, som opprinnelig ble lansert på PC og Mac i mai, 20009, skutt til nr. 1 på AppStore innen 24 timer etter lanseringen og ble der til i går. Det er selger for $ 2,99, noe som er høyere enn mange betalt apps. Jeg spilte fjorårets PC-versjonen hele veien gjennom. Spillet var utrolig vanedannende selv om det var ganske enkelt illustrert i en todimensjonal tegnefilm stil. Du utgangspunktet sette plantene opp rundt et hus og bruke dem til å forsvare seg mot bølger av angrep Zombies. Det er en del av Tower Defense sjangeren av spill. PopCap sa også at Bejeweled 2 har nå solgt mer enn 3 millioner enheter på AppStore, og er den første betalte app å treffe milepæl. Det juvelen puzzle spillet har vært konsekvent i topp ti på AppStore's mest innbringende listen. Det er ingen liten bragd siden det er 150000 apps i butikken nå, og PC-spill ikke alltid ta av på iPhone. Seattle-baserte PopCap, dannet i 2000, som nylig tjente NOK 22.5 millioner dollar i venturekapital. Den har mer enn 260 mennesker og dets øverste spillet Bejeweled, har solgt mer enn 50 millioner enheter.
Palm Pre and Pixi to get webOS 1.4 update tomorrow — adds video recording, Flash support
Palm Pre and Pixi devotees, rejoice! Starting the night of Friday, Feb. 26., the fabled webOS 1.4 update will finally become available to users as an over-the-air update. The news comes via Engadget, and was confirmed by a Sprint message board posting.
The update includes the usual bug fixes and performance improvements, but it also brings two major new features to Palm’s platform — video recording, and Adobe Flash support. Palm originally announced the video recording feature at the Consumer Electronics Show in January, and said that it would feature similar editing and sharing options as the iPhone. Flash is only available for the Pre (due to its faster processor), and users still need to wait for the Flash plug-in to hit the Palm application catalog. Palm says it will be available shortly.
That it has taken so long for Palm’s smartphones to receive video recording — Android devices received it in early 2009, the iPhone got it with the 3GS in June ‘09 – likely contributed to Palm’s lackluster sales report.
It’s not entirely certain if this means that Verizon subscribers with the Pre Plus and Pixi Plus will receive the update at the same time — but we will update once we’ve learned more.
Since the original Sprint message board posting has disappeared, find the full details below:
Palm Pre and Pixi WebOS 1.4 Software Update
On 2/26, Friday evening, Pre and Pixi device users will receive an Over the Air (OTA) notification to download the new 1.4 webOS software release.
This release includes both fixes and feature updates (listed below).
Fixes:
Time Zone bug fixed
Network time sync bug fixed to reflect accurate Network time
Bluetooth car-kit transition to device corrected
No EV icon bug fixed (random)
Random browser formatting bugs fixed
Fixed bug that incorrectly displayed Sprint when actually was Digital Roaming
Missing Contact issue specifically with swap down to 1.2.9.1 or less
Feature Updates
Phonebook Transfer (import & export)
Adds Video Capture capability & edit
Calendar Enhancements
Messaging Enhancements
Improved Performance (Phone & CAL)
Email Enhancements
Notification Enhancements
Adds Adobe Flash 10.0 (Pre Only)
NOTE: The 1.4 software adds the ability to use the Flash 10.0 Adobe plug-in which will be available shortly from the Palm Appl Catalogue.
Tags: Palm Pixi, Palm Pre, webOS
Companies: Palm
The update includes the usual bug fixes and performance improvements, but it also brings two major new features to Palm’s platform — video recording, and Adobe Flash support. Palm originally announced the video recording feature at the Consumer Electronics Show in January, and said that it would feature similar editing and sharing options as the iPhone. Flash is only available for the Pre (due to its faster processor), and users still need to wait for the Flash plug-in to hit the Palm application catalog. Palm says it will be available shortly.
That it has taken so long for Palm’s smartphones to receive video recording — Android devices received it in early 2009, the iPhone got it with the 3GS in June ‘09 – likely contributed to Palm’s lackluster sales report.
It’s not entirely certain if this means that Verizon subscribers with the Pre Plus and Pixi Plus will receive the update at the same time — but we will update once we’ve learned more.
Since the original Sprint message board posting has disappeared, find the full details below:
Palm Pre and Pixi WebOS 1.4 Software Update
On 2/26, Friday evening, Pre and Pixi device users will receive an Over the Air (OTA) notification to download the new 1.4 webOS software release.
This release includes both fixes and feature updates (listed below).
Fixes:
Time Zone bug fixed
Network time sync bug fixed to reflect accurate Network time
Bluetooth car-kit transition to device corrected
No EV icon bug fixed (random)
Random browser formatting bugs fixed
Fixed bug that incorrectly displayed Sprint when actually was Digital Roaming
Missing Contact issue specifically with swap down to 1.2.9.1 or less
Feature Updates
Phonebook Transfer (import & export)
Adds Video Capture capability & edit
Calendar Enhancements
Messaging Enhancements
Improved Performance (Phone & CAL)
Email Enhancements
Notification Enhancements
Adds Adobe Flash 10.0 (Pre Only)
NOTE: The 1.4 software adds the ability to use the Flash 10.0 Adobe plug-in which will be available shortly from the Palm Appl Catalogue.
Tags: Palm Pixi, Palm Pre, webOS
Companies: Palm
Angelina som Kay Scarpetta Angers Cornwell fans
It's official. Angelina Jolie har signert på å spille medisinsk sensor Kay Scarpetta i en som-av-ennå untitled film basert på Patricia Cornwell's 17-bokserien.
Jeg vil respektere boikotten
Våre konstant rants på PR Industry ikke gå ubemerket hen. Til gjengjeld våre tips boksen er fylt med humoristiske anekdoter, artikler og nå, en video. Her er to vi har mottatt den siste uken. Som vi legger til ære for Yahoo å bryte sine egne embargo og AP sender lanseringen av KODE rådgivere helt sidelengs ved å bryte en embargo med nesten 24 timer. Outcast PR var på begge historiene. Først jobben beskrivelse. Selv et tiår siden alle trodde PR var omtrent den verste jobben rundt. Forbes gjorde en roundup kalt "Five Crappiest Tech Jobs," og "PR Account Executive for punktum com oppstart var på listen. Andre vinnere inkluderte "porno Sifter for filtrering company" og "backpacker for dogdoo.com" (et område som faktisk solgte hunden ekskrementer online):
Memo til administrerende direktører og stiftere: Share The Love
Når vi splittet atomet, bemerket Einstein at alt forandret men vår måte å tenke på. Du kan gjøre det samme argumentet om oppkjøp og alternativ bassenger. Som Mark Suster nylig nevnt, vil de ansatte aldri se en stor lønning på de fleste oppstarter dersom selskapet skuddene mot månen. Dette er trolig grunnen til investorenes for en bedrift å selge tidlig fokuserer utelukkende på grunnleggeren: i de fleste tidlig stadium oppkjøp likvideringen preferanser og avtale-søtningsmidler bare arbeide for investorer og gründere.
YC-Finansiert Crocodoc gjør det enkelt å dele og Mark Up Dokumenter
Det er mange samarbeidsprosjekter dokumentet redaktører der ute, men når det kommer til å få innspill om et nytt dokument eller en PowerPoint dekk, mange virksomheter fremdeles stole på prøvd-og-sant metode for å skrive dem ut, overlate dem rundt på kontoret, og spør folk til å smøre sine notater direkte på sine papirkopier. Hvis denne situasjonen lyder kjent, vil du sannsynligvis ønske å sjekke ut Crocodoc, en Y Combinator finansiert oppstart som lanseres i dag. Crocodoc gjør det enkelt å dele og merke opp virtuelle dokumenter på samme måte som du ville ha gjort på et stykke papir, og det tar bare noen sekunder å begynne å bruke den. Crocodoc er en ekstremt grei tjeneste, og du trenger ikke engang å signere deg for en konto for å bruke den - bare laste opp et dokument, og et sekund senere vil du være i Crocodoc editor. Markeringsverktøyene inkluderer ERSTATT_PRODUKT_NAVN, en highligher, tekst gjennomstreking, og muligheten til å forlate dine egne kommentarer (en "penn" verktøyet er på vei). Redigere et dokument bør være godt kjent for alle som har brukt Adobe Acrobat eller Apples Forhåndsvisning. Hvis du ønsker å prøve merking opp en prøve dokument, kan du bruke denne demoen.
Stealthy Knowmore Loads Up On Talent To Silence The Social Noise Problem
Fundamentally, what I liked about FriendFeed was that it gave me a way to take all kinds of social data and create a tailored way to view it. And though the idea never took off in the mainstream before their acquisition by Facebook, the desire for a service that can do this, remains. Despite their efforts, Facebook hasn't solved this yet. And despite all the hype, neither has the new Google Buzz. There are at least a dozen other startups working on this problem too, but no one has even come close to FriendFeed yet. But a new one, still in stealth, offers hope.
Knowmore, is a New York City-based startup founded by Julian Gutman (ex-Google) and Joseph West (ex-Akamai). They've already assembled a team that includes Jeremie Miller, the inventor of XMPP/Jabber, Wilson Bilkovich one of the core developers of Rubinius (a Ruby implementation), and Wes Augur, a former principal R&D engineer at Digg. It's a wide range of talent across a bunch of different fields. The total team is already up to 20 people, according to their jobs page.
Knowmore, is a New York City-based startup founded by Julian Gutman (ex-Google) and Joseph West (ex-Akamai). They've already assembled a team that includes Jeremie Miller, the inventor of XMPP/Jabber, Wilson Bilkovich one of the core developers of Rubinius (a Ruby implementation), and Wes Augur, a former principal R&D engineer at Digg. It's a wide range of talent across a bunch of different fields. The total team is already up to 20 people, according to their jobs page.
Skuespiller Seth Green er engasjert
Female fans av Seth Green kan snart bli grønne av misunnelse: Skuespilleren er forlovet med modell / skuespillerinne Clare Grant, folk har bekreftet.
Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell blant McQueen sørgende
torsdagens begravelse tjeneste for britisk motedesigneren Alexander McQueen i London St. Paul kirke i Knightsbridge kan ha blitt fakturert "familie-only", men tydeligvis at etiketten også utvidet til hans nære venner Kate Moss , Naomi Campbell og Stella McCartney.
Thwapr adds more video sharing, higher quality, still no need to sign up
In December I wrote about Thwapr, a video-sharing service focused on mobile videos. Instead of building apps for smartphones, Thwapr chose to make its videos auto-playable on as many phones — smart or dumb — as possible without any software downloads, including apps.
This week, Thwapr has added one-click Facebook and Twitter sharing to video clips hosted at Thwapr, as well as a “Thwap It” button to share over its own social network. The catch is: There’s no catch. You needn’t sign up with Thwapr, either to share or to receive a clip. In that way, Thwapr is just like YouTube.
CTO Eric Hoffert gave me a demo over the phone. As you can see on this test page, all you need do is click the Facebook or Twitter button to send a tagged link and comment to your own network. The Thwapit button lets you send a message to someone else’s mobile phone, with a link to a video that will automatically play on more than 200 models of phone.
The most serendipitous part of the service, Hoffert says, is that many recipients aren’t aware that their phone can play video clips until they click: “On a BlackBerry 8330 or a Droid on Verizon, Thwapr serves streaming video in RTSP format. On a more modestly powered Motorola Razr feature phone on Sprint, it serves a downloadable 3GP video file delivered via HTTP. Thwapr knows the pixel resolution of your phone’s screen and whether or not it’s a touchscreen. We resize the video to fit.”
The latest upgrade improves video quality as well. “If you shoot video on a BlackBerry,” Hoffert said, “it’ll play on some other phones with higher resolution than BlackBerry supports. On Android, we’ve just doubled our video quality. It looks great.”
Thwapr was founded in 2007 with funding of $3 million from angel investors . The company is headquartered in New York City and has 15 employees.
Companies: Thwapr
This week, Thwapr has added one-click Facebook and Twitter sharing to video clips hosted at Thwapr, as well as a “Thwap It” button to share over its own social network. The catch is: There’s no catch. You needn’t sign up with Thwapr, either to share or to receive a clip. In that way, Thwapr is just like YouTube.
CTO Eric Hoffert gave me a demo over the phone. As you can see on this test page, all you need do is click the Facebook or Twitter button to send a tagged link and comment to your own network. The Thwapit button lets you send a message to someone else’s mobile phone, with a link to a video that will automatically play on more than 200 models of phone.
The most serendipitous part of the service, Hoffert says, is that many recipients aren’t aware that their phone can play video clips until they click: “On a BlackBerry 8330 or a Droid on Verizon, Thwapr serves streaming video in RTSP format. On a more modestly powered Motorola Razr feature phone on Sprint, it serves a downloadable 3GP video file delivered via HTTP. Thwapr knows the pixel resolution of your phone’s screen and whether or not it’s a touchscreen. We resize the video to fit.”
The latest upgrade improves video quality as well. “If you shoot video on a BlackBerry,” Hoffert said, “it’ll play on some other phones with higher resolution than BlackBerry supports. On Android, we’ve just doubled our video quality. It looks great.”
Thwapr was founded in 2007 with funding of $3 million from angel investors . The company is headquartered in New York City and has 15 employees.
Companies: Thwapr
Embargoer forklares med fargerike tegneseriefigurer
Vi i VentureBeat er helt fint med embargoer (de er tidsstempler PR folk legger på pressemeldinger, det er forstått at journalister ikke vil publisere en historie før gitt tidspunkt). Embargoer gi oss mer tid til å jobbe på en historie, så vi ikke styrtende ut et halvferdig post for å slå GigaOm. Likevel kan prosessen suge moro ut av en hverdag: PR person emails meg å spørre om jeg vil respektere en embargo på noen varme nyhetsmelding. PR person samtaler for å se om jeg har lest posten min. PR person spør meg for å si det skriftlig at jeg vil respektere boikotten. PR personen skriker i telefonen til å vekke meg fra napping på tastaturet mitt. Gjenta 10 ganger daglig. Dette Tekst-til-film tegneserie går gjennom standard prosedyre. Jeg har ennå ikke funnet ut hvem som opprettet den. Anyone?
Vi presenterer nye VentureBeat ukentlige nyhetsbrev
Jeg er glad for å introdusere en helt ny måte å bo på toppen av all den innovasjon som VentureBeat dekker. I dag kan vi kunngjøre lanseringen av 4 nye ukentlige nyhetsbrev på e-post: VentureBeat Week in Review, MobileBeat Week in Review, GamesBeat Pulse og GreenBeat Week in Review. Så mye skjer i en gitt uke at det er ofte vanskelig å holde tritt med alle overskrifter, produktlanseringer, oppkjøp og investeringer. Og hvis yrkesliv holder nese til slipestein, det er aldri så lett å se bort fra nyheter totalt og ender opp mangler store historier. I tillegg til å merke de største nyhetene i uken og gir deg vår tar, vil nyhetsbrev holde deg i kretsen om alle kommende hendelser som VentureBeat er vert, samt arrangementer som vi tror bare du bør vite om. Vi har også omorganisert RSS-feeds slik at det er mye enklere å finne feedene du kan være interessert i, samt velge leveransen mekanisme som fungerer for deg. Hvis du ikke er interessert i å lese feeds eller ikke har tid eller kunnskap, er det nå veldig lett å få en email oversikten over alle overskriftene ... skummet historien titler og så bare les hva som interesserer deg mest. For eksempel å få en liste over alle VentureBeat overskrifter i innboksen hver dag, klikk her. Vi vil sende ut de første nyhetsbrev innen en uke. Abonner her: http://ping.fm/CDEgu Tags: email, feeds, nyhetsbrev, RSS Selskaper: VentureBeat
DVD-anmeldelse: 'September Issue' co-stjerner skinne
Mens «Vogue» editor Wintour bærer et preg av wariness i "The September Issue", en godt utformet doc om mote mag, er slakk plukket opp av chatteprotokoller kreative direktør Grace Coddington og überly fabelaktig stil guru André Leon Talley.
Review: Motorola Devour
Kort versjon: Hei damer! Din Droid er her. Motorola Devour (det er faktisk sluke, men jeg nekter å rope på deg) er en sosial media Android-telefonen med stil nok til å slå ned en million Droids. Men er det bare én murstein i Android veggen? Funksjoner: Amazing ekstrudert aluminium case MotoBLUR UI Full tastatur Avtakbart batteri 3,5 mm hodetelefonkontakt Positivt: Removable [...]
Obama’s plans are a good thing for space flight
John Carmack is the founder, president, and lead engineer of space flight company Armadillo Aerospace. He was also the co-founder of id Software, creator of classic computer games like Wolfenstein 3D, Doom and Quake.
In the interest of disclosure, Carmack notes that about 25 percent of the funding for Armadillo Aerospace has come through NASA.
There has been some wailing about how the newly proposed changes in NASA’s direction are “throwing away our future in space” by canceling the internal development of new launch vehicles. In reality, we won’t actually be losing anything. And focusing on commercial sourcing of space transportation may be the most beneficial thing NASA has ever done.
For years now, whenever a reporter asked me what I thought about returning to the moon with the country’s existing Constellation technology, I said something along the lines of “It’s like watching a slow motion train wreck. It isn’t going to end well.”
I have an excellent working relationship with the parts of NASA that my company deals with, but honestly, I thought the program was going to drag on for another half decade and piss away several more tens of billions of dollars before being re-scoped due to failure to deliver.
Cutting the internal NASA launch vehicle development now, as President Obama has proposed, is a Good Thing. We weren’t going to wind up with Ares V rockets delivering Altair landers to a moon base. It just wasn’t going to happen. Schedules would slip, requests for additional funding would be denied, and milestones would continue to be pushed years into the future until they were finally just canceled. After a hundred billion dollars was pumped through NASA, we would be left with, at best, a capsule launched on the world’s most expensive expendable rocket. Slow motion train wreck.
The United States has some pretty decent rockets today (the EELVs from Boeing and Lockheed Martin), and if SpaceX can deliver with the Falcon-9, we will have something that can again be competitive in the international market. The arguments for NASA building brand new rockets instead of making use of existing ones rested on two points: That the existing rockets weren’t big enough to handle the tasks, and that they weren’t “man rated” or safe enough for our astronauts. Good arguments can be made against both points, but it is remarkably easy to make a PowerPoint presentation look like a better idea than the existing state of the industrial market.
The real reason that new launch vehicles were integral to NASA’s plans is that NASA wanted to build rockets. I don’t really blame NASA — hey, building rockets is fun! It just isn’t the best organization to do it.
Yes, NASA built the Saturn V, but success at something like that is much more a function of the people than the institution, and almost all of those people are retired or dead. It would do a worse job at it than the companies that have actually built a new rocket in the last two decades, and the development effort wouldn’t have any additional economic benefit.
I remain optimistic about the future of man in space. The potential is, quite literally, unlimited. The physics isn’t changing. Relevant technologies continue to improve. NASA’s budget has a better chance of contributing to the advancement of spacefaring when it isn’t shoveled into doomed and redundant work.
Space can be more to the country than just an occasional spectacle to cheer.
Companies: Armadillo Aerospace
People: John Carmack
In the interest of disclosure, Carmack notes that about 25 percent of the funding for Armadillo Aerospace has come through NASA.
There has been some wailing about how the newly proposed changes in NASA’s direction are “throwing away our future in space” by canceling the internal development of new launch vehicles. In reality, we won’t actually be losing anything. And focusing on commercial sourcing of space transportation may be the most beneficial thing NASA has ever done.
For years now, whenever a reporter asked me what I thought about returning to the moon with the country’s existing Constellation technology, I said something along the lines of “It’s like watching a slow motion train wreck. It isn’t going to end well.”
I have an excellent working relationship with the parts of NASA that my company deals with, but honestly, I thought the program was going to drag on for another half decade and piss away several more tens of billions of dollars before being re-scoped due to failure to deliver.
Cutting the internal NASA launch vehicle development now, as President Obama has proposed, is a Good Thing. We weren’t going to wind up with Ares V rockets delivering Altair landers to a moon base. It just wasn’t going to happen. Schedules would slip, requests for additional funding would be denied, and milestones would continue to be pushed years into the future until they were finally just canceled. After a hundred billion dollars was pumped through NASA, we would be left with, at best, a capsule launched on the world’s most expensive expendable rocket. Slow motion train wreck.
The United States has some pretty decent rockets today (the EELVs from Boeing and Lockheed Martin), and if SpaceX can deliver with the Falcon-9, we will have something that can again be competitive in the international market. The arguments for NASA building brand new rockets instead of making use of existing ones rested on two points: That the existing rockets weren’t big enough to handle the tasks, and that they weren’t “man rated” or safe enough for our astronauts. Good arguments can be made against both points, but it is remarkably easy to make a PowerPoint presentation look like a better idea than the existing state of the industrial market.
The real reason that new launch vehicles were integral to NASA’s plans is that NASA wanted to build rockets. I don’t really blame NASA — hey, building rockets is fun! It just isn’t the best organization to do it.
Yes, NASA built the Saturn V, but success at something like that is much more a function of the people than the institution, and almost all of those people are retired or dead. It would do a worse job at it than the companies that have actually built a new rocket in the last two decades, and the development effort wouldn’t have any additional economic benefit.
I remain optimistic about the future of man in space. The potential is, quite literally, unlimited. The physics isn’t changing. Relevant technologies continue to improve. NASA’s budget has a better chance of contributing to the advancement of spacefaring when it isn’t shoveled into doomed and redundant work.
Space can be more to the country than just an occasional spectacle to cheer.
Companies: Armadillo Aerospace
People: John Carmack
Yammer Communities åpne døren for B2B Microblog samarbeid og mye mer
Som vi rapporterte i går kveld, har Yammer nettopp annonsert at de vil begynne å tillate brukerne å melde seg for microblogging service uten e-postadresser som er tilknyttet deres selskap domenenavn (f.eks jason@company.com). Denne nye funksjonen, kalt Communities, åpnes tjenesten til mindre formelle organisasjoner, og selv familier. Og det åpner også døren for B2B samarbeidet, som er hvordan Yammer synes å være primært markedsføre den nye funksjonen Communities vil lanseres 1. mars. Dette er et stort trekk for selskapet. På en telefonkonferanse i morges, sa Yammer konsernsjef David Sacks at ett av problemene med Yammer så langt har vært at kommunikasjon på tjenesten har vært begrenset til intern bruk i en bedrift. Spørsmålet mange mennesker løp inn var at de hadde ønsker å samarbeide med sine kunder eller forretningspartnere også, men hadde ikke en måte å gjøre det uten å invitere dem til bedriftens interne nettverk (som ofte var ikke et alternativ) .
Trackur lanserer gratis versjon av sitt sosiale medier Avlytting Verktøyet
Trackur en bootstrapped oppstart grunnlagt av Internett-markedsføring konsulent og forfatter Andy Beal, frem til nå tilbys bare betalte versjoner av online omdømmebygging og sosiale medier overvåkingsverktøy, men med gratis prøve perioder. Dag den nyopprettede selskapet introduserer et helt gratis versjon av Web-basert programvarepakke som gir markedsførere og små bedrifter en overbevisende grunn til å ønske å sjekke det ut og se hvorfor grunnleggende Google Alerts rett og slett ikke kan klippe det lenger.
Bekreftet: Match.com kjøper Singlesnet
Vi kalte det. IAC's Match.com er erverve stipendiat datingside Singlesnet. Vi opprinnelig rapportert om avtalen i forrige uke. Vilkårene i avtalen ble ikke offentliggjort. Match.com sier oppkjøpet er mer en "verdi oppkjøp enn en strategisk én" og Singlesnet vil fortsatt bli drevet som en selvstendig virksomhet. Singlesnet trafikk, sier Match, no, er synkende, men kunne presentere nye inntektsmuligheter muligheter for "Match.com 's samlede portefølje av innenlandske online dating merkevarer.
Bysøk bygger Out The Definitive Directory of Local Business Tweets
Twitter er å bli en seriøs markedsføring redskap for lokale bedrifter. Alle fra din lokale baker til din favoritt restaurant får på Twitter for å snakke med kunder og tegne på nye. Bare sist helg da jeg kjørte til Vermont med familien min, sendte jeg ut en Tweet ber om et bra sted å spise lunsj. Jeg fikk mer enn fem svar, blant annet en fra den lokale verten par anbefale to plasser i byen (som ikke eies av dem). Det var i Brattleboro, Vermont. Men det var så tilfeldig. Hvordan du selv finne ut hvilke av dine favoritt lokale bedrifter har Twitter-kontoer eller hva deres Twitter håndtak er? Vel, bysøk gjør det for deg. Den lokale virksomheten guide begynner å bygge ut en definitiv katalog av Twitter-kontoer og Tweets om lokale restauranter, hoteller, spa og butikker. Det starter liten, med om lag 5.000 virksomhetsoppføringer for tiden bundet til sitt Twitter-kontoer (som bedrifter kan legge seg når de hevder sine bysøk siden), men målet er å legge Tweets av og om noen av de 15 millioner bedrifter i sine oppføringer.
Adobe Flash 10.1 holder ut for Windows 7 Phone, 6.5-enheter kan haz oppgradere til WP7?
Bare den andre dagen ble hjerter knust hele verden når Microsoft sier at dagens Windows Mobile 6.5-enheter vil ikke kunne oppgradere til Windows Phone 7. Den gode nyheten er at kanskje ikke helt sant som Microsoft sa på Twitter at det er helt opp til maskinvareprodusenter. Vei å forvirre oss! Et annet område hvor WinMo 6.5 får ingen kjærlighet? Adobe Flash 10.1.
Yammer Communities move business microblogging outside your company
Yammer may still be known as the startup that offers “Twitter for the enterprise,” but it continues adding features that differentiate it from Twitter and make it a more powerful business tool. Today, it announced Yammer Communities, a way to use microblogging to communicate outside your company.
Until now, Yammer customers used the product for internal communication, which was enforced by the fact that anyone in a Yammer network needed to have a company email address. But chief executive David Sacks said microblogging can be useful for working with partners, customers, and others, and also to create new kinds of networks. He painted a picture of how a series of connected Yammer Communities can starting adding up to “the B2B social graph.”
The San Francisco startup has already recruited a number of launch partners, which give a sense of how companies could use Yammer Communities. Deloitte, for example, will use Communities to discuss projects with its consulting clients. Cleantech company Better Place will use the feature to coordinate with its manufacturing and vendor partners. And an unidentified media company has built a community for an advisory panel of 1,500 moms.
Sacks also gave reporters a quick tour of the product, where he emphasized the separateness of each community. Not only is each community a separate stream of posts, but members even have different profiles for each one. Members can bring up a list of all their communities, which shows the number of unread messages in each network. That’s an important step in making social networking tools a valid replacement for email, Sacks said, because that makes it easier to keep up with all of your communication and not let messages slip through the cracks.
Yammer plans to launch the communities feature on March 1, on both its web, mobile, and desktop interfaces. Communities will be included in Yammer’s standard pricing.
During the briefing, Sacks also shared that Yammer has 60,000 customers and made “seven figures” in revenue during its first year. Yammer has raised $15 million in funding.
Tags: Yammer
People: David Sacks
Until now, Yammer customers used the product for internal communication, which was enforced by the fact that anyone in a Yammer network needed to have a company email address. But chief executive David Sacks said microblogging can be useful for working with partners, customers, and others, and also to create new kinds of networks. He painted a picture of how a series of connected Yammer Communities can starting adding up to “the B2B social graph.”
The San Francisco startup has already recruited a number of launch partners, which give a sense of how companies could use Yammer Communities. Deloitte, for example, will use Communities to discuss projects with its consulting clients. Cleantech company Better Place will use the feature to coordinate with its manufacturing and vendor partners. And an unidentified media company has built a community for an advisory panel of 1,500 moms.
Sacks also gave reporters a quick tour of the product, where he emphasized the separateness of each community. Not only is each community a separate stream of posts, but members even have different profiles for each one. Members can bring up a list of all their communities, which shows the number of unread messages in each network. That’s an important step in making social networking tools a valid replacement for email, Sacks said, because that makes it easier to keep up with all of your communication and not let messages slip through the cracks.
Yammer plans to launch the communities feature on March 1, on both its web, mobile, and desktop interfaces. Communities will be included in Yammer’s standard pricing.
During the briefing, Sacks also shared that Yammer has 60,000 customers and made “seven figures” in revenue during its first year. Yammer has raised $15 million in funding.
Tags: Yammer
People: David Sacks
Cleantech Group nabs $3.2M to grow green empire
The Cleantech Group, the green technology event, research, reporting and consulting company, is having a big week. The first of five annual Cleantech Forums is taking place right now in San Francisco, drawing green investors and entrepreneurs from around the world. And today, the Bay Area company took the stage to announce its own news: a $3.2 million third round of funding that will be used to expand its reach and portfolio of services.
Today, the Group focuses mostly on industry research, which it sells to companies, government agencies and investors, and coordinating events that bring all the most important cleantech players into the same room. But it’s slowly been expanding into breaking news reporting — making it an indirect competitor with VentureBreat — and business consulting, advising companies about how best to grow within their market sectors. New members have already been added to the executive team to expedite this expansion — including the appointment of Sheeraz Haji (a speaker at VentureBeat’s November GreenBeat conference) as president.
The Cleantech Group’s goal is to tackle the biggest challenges standing between green innovation and wide adoption. So it’s appropriate that the theme of this year’s first Cleantech Forum is how to scale the best green developments in existence today. This has been an ongoing hurdle in almost every niche of the cleantech sector, from the Smart Grid, to solar and wind power to water filtration and distribution. It’s a problem that ties together public and private financing with government regulation and R&D.
While its consulting business is still young, the Group says it has already provided expertise to companies like Autodesk and Veolia Environnement, a water, energy and waste management company that has a major announcement coming out this afternoon at the Forum. The company will leverage its market research infrastructure and expanding patent database to help these clients shape their strategies.
The Cleantech Group will also be adding two events to its annual circuit. Continuing to grow its global focus, it will host one in Boston in June looking at how Indian and Chinese companies are establishing footholds in New England; as well as an energy efficiency-based conference in Chicago.
The recent financing came from Credit Suisse, SAIL Venture Partners, Georgieff Capital, and Consensus Business Group among others.
Companies: Cleantech Group, Consensus Business Group, Credit Suisse, Georgieff Capital, SAIL Ventures
Today, the Group focuses mostly on industry research, which it sells to companies, government agencies and investors, and coordinating events that bring all the most important cleantech players into the same room. But it’s slowly been expanding into breaking news reporting — making it an indirect competitor with VentureBreat — and business consulting, advising companies about how best to grow within their market sectors. New members have already been added to the executive team to expedite this expansion — including the appointment of Sheeraz Haji (a speaker at VentureBeat’s November GreenBeat conference) as president.
The Cleantech Group’s goal is to tackle the biggest challenges standing between green innovation and wide adoption. So it’s appropriate that the theme of this year’s first Cleantech Forum is how to scale the best green developments in existence today. This has been an ongoing hurdle in almost every niche of the cleantech sector, from the Smart Grid, to solar and wind power to water filtration and distribution. It’s a problem that ties together public and private financing with government regulation and R&D.
While its consulting business is still young, the Group says it has already provided expertise to companies like Autodesk and Veolia Environnement, a water, energy and waste management company that has a major announcement coming out this afternoon at the Forum. The company will leverage its market research infrastructure and expanding patent database to help these clients shape their strategies.
The Cleantech Group will also be adding two events to its annual circuit. Continuing to grow its global focus, it will host one in Boston in June looking at how Indian and Chinese companies are establishing footholds in New England; as well as an energy efficiency-based conference in Chicago.
The recent financing came from Credit Suisse, SAIL Venture Partners, Georgieff Capital, and Consensus Business Group among others.
Companies: Cleantech Group, Consensus Business Group, Credit Suisse, Georgieff Capital, SAIL Ventures
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